A few years ago, I wrote for Lib Dem Voice arguing that Lib Dem politicians who employed people should up there game when it came to HR practices.
I argued that the best way of explaining liberalism is to show what in means in all that we do – especially in how we treated our staff colleagues. With Westminster now paying for the staff for 72 (yay!) fine Lib Dem MPs (and Short Money hopefully adding to the central staff we can afford), this is a good time to be reminded of this.
However, that’s not why I’m writing today.
The other day, the Federal Party issued a job advert for a senior communications role. The advert asked applications to prepare a CV (no more than two pages) and a covering letter explaining why they would be a good fit in the role. I am sure that a serious applicant will spend quite some time and effort getting this right.
This role looks important and I’d hope that the Party will attract serious and experienced applicants.
So what does the Party say to those serious and experienced applicants who we want to spend time and effort on an application?
We will not notify applicants if their application has not been successful at the shortlisting stage
As I tweeted to the Federal Party President, this essentially says “please put a lot of work into the application but we won’t show you the courtesy of even acknowledging that application because we don’t respect you”.
I have seen similar approach in job postings from local parties so it seems to be the Lib Dem Way!
We can do better than this!
I appreciate that it is extra work but the extra time to reply to someone and tell them that we will not be shortlisting them for interview is not beyond us.
It’s our way of showing that individuals do matter, even those we don’t choose to shortlist.
This may be a small point and many other employers out there may adopt this practice. But small points matter – especially points that give us the opportunity to demonstrate who we are.
* Stephen Harte is a lawyer and a member in Edinburgh West.
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7 Comments
Hear! Hear! We should acknowledge everyone’s contribution to our political system.
Yes! I remember writing loads of applications in 1990’s recession. It was utterly soul destroying to think people were still considering you when they’d probably binned your forms a fortnight previous.
What a way to put people off our party if we do not acknowledge their efforts, likely mostly people with inclinations towards us. What a discourtesy! Stephen is absolutely right.
It would literally take only minutes to be courteous and to send an email to notify those who have applied, but have not been shortlisted.
Whoever decided not to do this clearly made a mistake, which could and should be corrected before people who have put in the effort to apply are left feeling that the party does not care about every person who has applied to work for the party.
Agreed.
Like Robert Perry I had the same soul destroying experience many times while seeking work.
It takes a few minutes to write a one sentence e-mail and send it ‘b.c.c.’ to all applicants who have not been shortlisted. Why can’t we even do that?
Sadly, the party still believes it’s a great reflection of who we are to tell candidates that they can’t be bothered acknowledging their application and telling them how they get on.
https://www.libdems.org.uk/work-for-us/federal-vacancy/foreign-affairs-adviser