Organisations which treat candidates badly during the recruitment process have been warned that they could face a backlash affecting their business and their brands.
A survey of 5,000 jobseekers by recruitment web site totaljobs.com found that half had attended an interview but never heard back from the company, while two out of five felt misled by the job description.
Interviewers asking irrelevant questions unrelated to the job was another common complaint. Questions about marital status and children, interviewers being rude or late and pointed questions about health or disabilities were all cited by candidates.
Most of those polled said they would be more likely to shun a company's products or services if they had a negative recruitment experience.
Jobseekers aged over thirty-five are the most likely to boycott a company’s products or services. Nearly six out of ten of this age group said that they were likely to shun a firm which had offended them compared to four out of ten of the 16-25 age group.
Keith Robinson, chief operations officer for totaljobs.com, said: "Companies need to wise up to the fact that their 'don't call us, we'll call you' policy is detrimental to both their reputation and their bottom line.
"Given the millions of pounds that companies spend on communicating their brand values externally, it's interesting to see how this can be undermined through simple lack of courtesy in the recruitment process."