9 Million reasons why you should check your ATS's automated rejection letters.

9 Million reasons why you should check your ATS's automated rejection letters.

Did you know that since the first Walmart GRS was rolled out in September 2010 there have been 8,987,505 people received a rejection email from Walmart (ASDA, Canada, Chile, China, Mexico, Puerto Rico and US)?  Almost 9 million applicants have received our rejection letters. Yes – 9 million people have received this personal communication from us informing them they were rejected for Walmart employment!  We had 9 million opportunities to make a positive impression – but did we?

Have you read your rejection letter lately? What kind of emotion would it evoke in you if you were a rejected job applicant? Is your rejection letter accurate, honest, sincere, helpful, appropriate, and does leave the applicant with a positive attitude of Walmart or does it create a negative impression?

 I am not an English major or a professional communicator but my recruiting sales experience noted a number of concerns about this rejection letter used here in the Walmart Home Office GRS System (click on below image to enlarge):

What are your impressions after reading this rejection letter?

Here are some of my concerns about this rejection letter:

1) Isn’t the use of just “Thanks” here seem somewhat insincere, curt, too informal? Wouldn’t “Thank you” be more sincere and appropriate?

2) This email never really (or clearly) tells me I am no longer an active candidate for this job.

3) Why include the word “again”; I hear an applicant saying: ‘you mean I have to go to your difficult career site again? Ugh!’

4) This rejection letter encourages the rejected applicant to use our “Search Tool” option on the Profile home page but there is no “Search Tool” but there is a “Search Agent Manager” which allows an applicant to create, edit and run your saved searches. Saved searches can be configured to have the newest results of your search e-mailed to you on a regular basis.

Here are a few tips on writing good rejection letters:

1) Rejection letters are extremely difficult to write – don’t wing it.
2) Be honest with the applicant. Be as courteous as possible without being misleading.
3) Don’t be so brief as to appear curt or seem a “brush off”.
4) Soften the “No”.
5) Show appreciation for the applicant’s interest in working for Walmart
6) The focus should be on the applicant’s needs, not on those of the corporation – applicants really do not care about the corporations needs thus the uses of “we” and “I” should be limited and the uses of “you” and “your” should be maximized.
7) Avoid using business or recruiting jargon.
8) Try to leave the applicant with a positive impression of the Walmart brand and Walmart employment brand.