Q: I'm new to managing and hiring, and I just offered a position to my first hire (and he accepted). How should I let the other candidates and applicants know the position has been filled? We only interviewed one other candidate, though many others had been in contact by e-mail and phone. Should I call the other interviewed candidate and e-mail the others?
Jessica
A: Good stuff! Let's hope this is the first of many.
After you have an agreement from someone, tell the other in-house candidates personally. They are, after all, staff members with something at stake. Do not tell them by e-mail. Tell them by phone only as a last resort.
Then tell your staff in a posting.
Then tell the external candidates. You can e-mail them, write them, whatever you want, depending on your interest in them for future openings.
This will keep you out of a mess in which your staffers hear from people outside the newsroom about what is going on with your staff.
Follow: Thanks very much for your answer. One thing I wanted to clarify -- none of the applicants were in-house staff. Some were from other papers owned by our parent company. Most were completely external, and most had not been asked for interviews. That's where I wasn't sure how to notify them. I ended up e-mailing most of them, with longer notes and follow-up phone calls to the ones who seemed to have potential for possible future openings.
From the grateful responses I received to my notes and calls, it seems that many papers don't bother responding in any way to applicants they aren't interested in interviewing. Having been there myself not that long ago, I decided some feedback was better than none. Even in the cases where it was clear we were one of many papers applied to, it couldn't hurt (and could only help) for us to have some interaction with interested applicants, even if they were unsuccessful this time around.
Thanks again for your advice.
Jessica
