Interview ‘No Shows’ Leave Jobs Unfilled

 Guest Blogger Julie Sykes of JCS HR discusses the rising number of 'no shows for interviews'

According to Huddersfield based HR specialist Julie Sykes of JCS HR, one of the reasons vacancies remained unfilled is the high level of ‘no shows’ at interview. “My recent experience has been that anything up to 50% of interview candidates fail to turn up. This isn’t limited to any particular type of job – I have seen it for Sales roles, Engineering roles, and Marketing roles amongst others.

 

There are lots of potential reasons for this happening but my view is that the main one is that in most instances applying for a job requires a lot less effort than it used to. Once your CV is written it is just a case of pressing a few buttons and there you are, you’ve applied for a job! Because it’s so easy to apply people can be less discerning about what they apply for and submit their CV for jobs that – if they thought about it a bit more – they aren’t really interested in.“

 

This is supported by the other observation Julie has made recently which is that a large percentage of the candidates who do turn up for interviews, do very little research about the company or the role they are being interviewed for. “On more than one occasion when I have asked a candidate to tell my why they are interested in the role, I have been asked to remind them which job the interview is for, because they have applied for so many jobs that they can’t remember!”

 

Julie’s experience is not uncommon. Andy Knight, Foundry Manager at Hargreaves Foundry, said that his experience has been that candidates are happy with the lifestyle provided by living on benefits, and so aren’t really interested in any job and so don’t turn up for interview.

 

Keeley Edge of Key Appointments – a Leeds based recruitment agency – added that her company had also had an increase in ‘no shows’ from candidates for their screening interviews with the agency.

 

So although redundancies and unemployment have, without doubt, increased, there are still jobs out there. So the lesson to be learned is that if someone is offered a job interview, they should be sure to do their research and turn up. The chances are that the odds of them getting the job are better than they think.

 

For more information on JCS HR visit www.jcs-hr.co.uk or call 01484 602708.

You can also follow Julie at www.twitter.com/@HRJulie