Walk-in applicants

njjel · February 2006

When we have jobs advertised, is there any regulations that requires us to give walk-in's an application or can we ask them to leave us their resume and give them an app if they are selected to interview?

pork1 · February 2006

NJJEL: Good question, I will try and go through my background information to find if there is any regulatory requirements. If there is it would be in th EEO provisions. We do offer anyone the opportunity to go to the WIN Centers to fill out an application, if they do not want to do that, then we offer the opportunity to fillout one that we will keep on file. But, I also tell them that our primary recruiting actions are given to the WIN Centers and we call them first with our search actions. We are lucky in that we do not have to advertise very much for our job applicants.

PORK

Irie · February 2006

How is your advertisement worded? If you say "submit resume" and give a fax number or your address where to send the resume, then you do not have to provide applications for walk-ins. If they show up at your door you can tell them to leave a resume. If you say "apply in person" then you would have to give them an application. Whatever way your application process is stated in the ad is the only thing you must comply with.

pork1 · February 2006

I concurr, I knew that you had hit onto something that I needed to also check out. Nothing regulatory, but consistent actions for "all comers" is what counts here. Follow your ad and you can not be (most likely want be) accused of false advertisements and discrimination charges in your hiring practices. Both are very serious and can be the root cause for outside and inside attacks, if not done the same way every day and every ad.

PORK

WT · February 2006

Many employers use blind ads for positions. These require a reply to the paper and replies are forwarded to the employer. If you are flooded with walk-ins, that would put a stop to it, but everybody has a chance to put in a resume and nobody fills out any particular application unless you do it as part of the interview process.

Our problem here is not applications but rather, we have walk-ins who expect an interview. I do not interview without an appointment simply because if I did so, there would not be time to do any other work. This is an economically distressed area (Northeast rustbelt) and jobs are hard to come by.

Remember to keep the resumes of the unsuccessful candidates for at least a year. If they complain to the EEOC, the agency will want to see all the resumes submitted.

mwild3136 · February 2006

Hi njjel - there isn't a regulation that requires a company to give applicants an application. However, you will run into trouble with the EEOC if you allow some applicants to stop by & fill out an application & not others - it starts to look like "cherry-picking". Whatever you do, it should be all or nothing. Either you allow everyone to fill out an application for open positions or you don't. I like the advice from earlier - set the policy & then apply it consistently.

Mandi

hrdir03nafcu · February 2006

Nijel,

There's no regulation requiring that you allow walk-ins to complete an application.

In fact, I've always been advised by legal counsel AGAINST accepting even a resume from walk-in applicants: the reason being, that the ER and visually determine applicant's race, gender, age, if they walk in, and that might be used by the applicant as part of a disrimination claim if they're not hired.

In all of our ad and job postings, I always instruct applicants to send resume + cover ltr by either FAX or e-mail... I don't even give our snailmail address, thought it's easy enough for people to look it up on our website.

As other posts have indicated, your best bet is to be clear about your process for application in any ads/job postings, to have a clear policy about whether or not you will accept walk-in applicants, and follow the policy strictly and consistently. That gives you more than sufficient basis to turn the walk-in applicant away, and require that they follow your stated procedure for applying for the job.

BTW: we never give an applicant the application for employment until we have determined our interest in seeing them, and invited the applicant in for an initial face interview.

Hope this is helpful.

Walk-in applicants

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