I have had a similar experience. I started to organize seminars/training for HR people and management Agile Recruiter* to eliminate some of these. In fact, for the past 20 years, nothing has changed in HR beyond increasingly heavy automation.

When I was CEO of a small company, I eliminated most of these practices. Including this challenging statement above. I still have a lot of thank you emails or letters from declined candidates who told us they were surprised to be treated with dignity. Handful became our customers later, once they gained their new position somewhere. I am surprised that all mistakes are being repeated on the market 20 years later.

*Agile Recruiter link http://www.michalvallo.eu/agile-recruiter/