MANY job vacancies are going unfilled – because applicants can’t be bothered to turn up for interviews, it is claimed.
Despite latest figures showing unemployment at a 17-year high, Huddersfield-based human resources consultant Julie Sykes said a high level of “no shows” meant vacancies were going unfilled.
Julie, who heads Shepley-based JCS HR, said: “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.“
Julie said: “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!”
One employer who has worked with Julie said that it seemed candidates were happy with the lifestyle provided by living on benefits, weren’t really interested in any job and so didn’t turn up for interview.
Said Julie: “Although redundancies and unemployment have, without doubt, increased, there are still jobs out there.
“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.”
