HR people mess the employment brand

Let me confess, I get a lot of calls for HR consulting roles, from some of the biggest firms in the business. Usually I say a "no" to them. That's because these HR Consultants have messed up their own employment brand in my eyes.

Yeah, dear readers, employment branding is too important a think to be left to HR professionals (or consultants!). Even the HR Wench discovers this now:

I see a lot of articles, blog posts and comments from non-HR job seekers out there that complain about never hearing back from recruiters and hiring managers. Even those that are flown across the country for interviews, put up in hotels and given gift baskets (for crap's sake!) are sometimes left hanging with no offer and no "thanks but no thanks" communication.

Well guess what? It happens when HR recruiters and hiring managers are hiring HR pros too.

The good news about this is, the HR job seeker knows right away that they would not have wanted to work at the communication-challenged company anyways. I mean, if they can't even send a 3 sentence decline letter or email after an interview what else is going on there? Then again, the HR job seeker may lament, "See? This is why they need ME - to improve their employment brand!"

So if you are a HR professional, what are you doing to rescue your employment brand?