Resources- Employer- Contacting Candidates

We recommend making initial contact with around five to ten candidates and allowing five to seven days for their response. While you may receive return emails from each candidate you should not be surprised with a 50 per cent response rate.

When making initial email contact you might consider remaining anonymous as you are dealing with people you have not met. It is wise to be cautious when disclosing any personal details including contact details to any Site Members. We urge you to exercise caution when providing any personal contact information to any Site Members.

We suggest including in the email a brief job description summarising the type of work, required hours, essential and desirable skills and a request for the candidate to confirm if they are available and if they would be interested in pursuing the opportunity further. Including a date by which candidates should respond may also assist with your planning.

Based on responses you may choose to send out additional initial contact emails, send follow-up emails or a combination of both. New candidates will be registering all the time so we recommend you review the details of any newly posted profiles before sending out a second round of initial contacts. Follow-up emails can also be sent anonymously and can request that interested candidates reply with a short covering letter and a copy of their resume.

After reviewing resumes and covering letters we suggest interviewing a selection of three or more candidates. Should you have a preferred candidate a second interview is highly recommended prior to engaging them. 

In the interests of all the candidates you may contact we suggest that you send a brief email acknowledging that you have received their information and a date by which you will contact them, or alternatively that they have been unsuccessful and you will not be taking their application any further.