When not to accept applications?

LFernandes

I just read in a recent publication that you shouldn't accept applications if you don't have an open position because you are required to retain "applications" for five years and to call on those individuals before you interview current applicants.

I've always heard that you only have to keep resumes and applications on file for one year - so this is news to me.

Does anyone know anything about this and if it is in fact law? We are a private company located in New York.

Rockie

If you are like me, if you kept applications for five years, you would have to rent a warehouse to file them! From what I have been able to find out, you can choose to accept unsolicited resumes or not. We choose to accept only resumes for posted or open positions We also publish this in our ads. If I receive an unsolicited resume, I shred it.

As far as retention, I believe you are only required to keep them for one year; however, I know lots of companies who destroy them after six months or even less. We keep them for a year and this is a real burden to file and store for this length of time.

As far as being required to call the people you have on file first, I've not heard anything like this.

LFernandes

I agree. I can't imagine trying to keep hard copy applications and resumes for 5 years AND look at them (my allergies would have a field day). I keep everything electronically in a database which I can look back on if needed. I do look back over the year especially for hard to find positions but many times the person has already found another position and isn't interested.

HR has so much paper to begin with. We have to keep files for 7+ years once an EE terms. Better yet, length of employment + 30 years for some OSHA stuff.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-30-02 AT 08:11AM (CST)[/font][p]This sounds somewhat like an 'agency' internal policy. Certainly no law requires or suggests that the employer call people for interview in the order in which they filed their application. After all, you're not calling people to the counter by number to sell them car tags or accept their returned merchandise. However, it often does make sense to use that method to some degree, all other things being equal. If your job requirements are basically non-existent or minimal its much easier to explain your selection procedure to an 'inquiring agency' by showing them you did it in rank order than it is to say you really didn't have a procedure. If you were to say that, they start looking for all sorts of hidden agendas. Sensibly you choose for interview the most qualified among those who meet the stated requirements of your job opening, period, without regard to who might be on file otherwise. No agency can cite you for that. Only if I had an opening that required nothing more than "The Fogged-Up Mirror Test" would I call people in by rank order. Keep applications and resumes on file for one full year, then destroy them. (There's always the rule about not destroying that might be involved in an agency investigation and there's the possibility that your state requires a longer retention plan). You can certainly keep them forever if that meets a need at the company. If your policy states so, unsolicited resumes need not be kept unless you are pulling from that group to set up interviews and then they go with the one-year rule. Rockie's policy is a good one and widely used. It keeps you from being overrun with junk apps. Its a safe policy to advertise and then accept only applications for the jobs advertised, none other. Whatever your policy, be consistent. x:-)
P.S: I would like to know where you read that. Certainly poor and inaccurate advice.

LFernandes

Thanks! I'm going to stick with the one-year rule of thumb. I do, however, accept unsolicited resumes because we are a specialized manufacturing company and some of the positions we are required to fill from time to time are difficult ones to find qualified candidates for.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-30-02 AT 08:34AM (CST)[/font][p]LF: Just be aware that should you observe a longer retention policy it does subject the company to a much, much wider sheet of thin ice on which the HR staff must skate. If you retain applications for, say, 4 years, and you have an EEOC investigation of most any type, they are at liberty to ask to review all the files of selected, rejected and not interviewed applicants for whatever they say is the 'relevant period of time'. Generally, they are destroyed for such reasons as not having the space for them, having no useful purpose and, even if unspoken, to keep from having to come up with tons of irrelevant documents for an inspection. The unsolicited resume or application also broadens your sheet of thin ice as well.

LFernandes

I only retain the hard copies for one year. But I have an applicant database that has all the basic information for the applicant; i.e.; date received, position sought, if they applied for an open position and were interviewed for that position, if they were hired etc. That database goes as far back at 97-98. By keeping the database, does that mean that I have to keep the hard copies as well? x:o

What about elecontric resumes?