On this episode of iMPact Job Talk, we chat with iMPact’s owner Matt Peal, and Sr. Account Manager Curt Willbrandt about why candidates are ghosting employers during the interview process, and what they can do to minimize this from occurring.
You’ve Been Ghosted!
You’ve found a great candidate to fill one of your open positions. (The Crowd Cheers!!!) The next interview is scheduled but … instead of communicating why the candidate may no longer be interested in the role, they just don’t show up for the interview, and they stop responding to emails, calls, and texts — without any explanation. (The Crowd Groans …)
Like it or not, you’ve likely just been “Ghosted”.
Today, it doesn’t just happen in the dating scene. Employers are now getting ghosted more and more frequently. According to People Analytics firm Visier — 84% of job seekers have ghosted their current employer or potential new Employer in the past 18 months. Especially in the late stages of hiring and onboarding. According to Forbes, 7% of new hires simply fail to appear for their first day of work — after investing time and effort to successfully interview for and accept a job offer.
Reasons Candidates are Ghosting
According to the BBC, a recent Global Study shows that 75% of Job Seekers have been ghosted by a company after a job interview. So, job seekers have been conditioned to feel that if employers don’t behave professionally, why should candidates be expected to?
If you find yourself being ghosted by a candidate, it can be hard to determine why they are, in essence, turning down your position/firm.
People usually do things or don’t do things, for a reason. Some of those reasons may be external and have nothing to do with your particular organization or the interview experience you’ve provided to the candidate, but they could be…
Below are listed some reasons why a candidate would ghost an employer. These are things an employer needs to be mindful of, and take actions to address, in order to lower the risk of getting ghosted.
- Poor interview process – too many hurdles, too involved, not friendly, poor communication
- Candidates feel they can find something better in an active job market (competition is fierce), so how well have you “promoted” your firm or the position?
- Candidates have received multiple concurrent offers (did you make your best offer or did you make a low-ball offer with the intention of negotiating further?)
- Candidates may go silent as a stall tactic to allow for a better offer to come through in response to employers ghosting a candidate for a period of time hoping a stronger candidate comes through – two-way street?
- Lack of professionalism demonstrated to the candidate throughout the interview cycle, or a lack of professionalism on the candidates’ side, not being familiar with proper job search etiquette
- Some candidates feel uncomfortable with confrontation or delivering what is perceived as “bad news”
- Potential Employees don’t have a good understanding of what costs and efforts are wasted when they are a no-show to a new position they’ve just accepted
- The job interviewed for was not exactly what the candidate expected, a job posting may not accurately match the open role
- The interview process is moving too slowly for market conditions, sending the wrong message that the role is not that important to fill or that the candidate is not really valued
- The candidate doesn’t feel connected to the company, the interview team, the mission of your firm, or the role itself
To mitigate the risk of being ghosted, put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. From there, provide a compelling and clear picture of the job role, the organizational culture, the shared mission of your workforce, and the value you see in the candidate’s background for the role. Provide regular and consistent and friendly communication throughout the recruitment and interview process.
Communication During Hiring/Recruiting Process
- Set the right expectations upfront. Let your candidates know what to expect about your interview process and provide opportunities for them to ask questions and stay engaged throughout the recruitment cycle.
- Keep your candidates informed during every step of your interview cycle, so they know where they are in the hiring process — including — the post-offer stage. According to a CareerBuilder survey, 38% of Candidates responded that employers are leaving them in the dark, as to where they stand as a candidate throughout the hiring cycle.
- Discuss the salary range for the role earlier in the interview cycle to make sure you both can afford to work together and to help the candidate compare your position to others they are exploring in the job market. They need to know how competitive you can be when it comes to compensation. Otherwise, you’re making it easy for your competition tell them you aren’t that competitive.
- Think of candidates almost like new potential business leads for your company. No one would let a business lead sit for several days before responding to their questions, you just won’t get a lot of new customers if you do this. So, treat your candidates with the same sense of urgency. Be more attentive and respond promptly to candidates’ follow-up calls, emails, and texts. Make sure candidates understand that they’re still being considered unless they’re not…
- Use all communication methods. If you’ve only emailed a candidate and not heard back (SPAM folder anyone?), try sending a text, or placing a call and leaving a voicemail. You can also give a candidate a deadline to respond to express their interest and to also create a sense of urgency, help them know that this is important. “Please contact me back by noon tomorrow, you are our first choice, but if we don’t hear back from you we will need to move forward with another candidate”.
Streamline Hiring Process
If you’ve experienced candidate ghosting more than once, you should consider a “Red Flag” indicating you need to re-evaluate your hiring process. Think about the timeframe between your first contact with a candidate to the point where an offer is being made. Review all the steps in between and make sure they are well thought out and find ways to streamline that process to move more quickly. The more steps or time it takes to make an offer, the higher the likelihood that your desired candidate finds another job opportunity elsewhere. Your competitors will thank you for taking too long to come to an offer decision as they hire that candidate right out from under you.
Ask your candidates about their timeline and where they stand in the interview process with other firms. Are they in the final stages with other companies? If so, is there something you can do to adjust your own timeline?
Candidates do care about pay and benefits. That said, in our iMPact Business Group 2022 Salary Survey our Candidates told us that company culture was their #2 most important job satisfaction factor, alongside work-from-home flexibility, and work-life balance. So, you need to make sure you understand what’s important to your candidate (let alone your current workforce) and highlight those items about your firm, and actually promote why your company is a great place to work, this should be done at several points throughout the hiring process.
Keep Track of Candidates
If a candidate has ghosted you, it’s probably best to make sure you don’t repeat that process in the future, so make sure you’ve documented that fact in your Applicant Tracking System (ATS). It doesn’t mean you may not hire this individual in the future; circumstances and market conditions do change over time after all. That said, documenting when ghosting occurs will help you better manage, and risk assess the situation the next time you do consider a particular candidate in the future. Since your Talent Acquisition staff is most likely to change over time, this will help a new Talent Acquisition team member know to be on guard. The analogy of “once-bitten, twice-shy” comes to mind here. If they’ve ghosted you once, you will want to make sure you’ve taken steps so they don’t ghost you again.
iMPact Business Group is a staffing agency specializing in Information Technology, Engineering, Finance/Accounting, and Business Administration/Process positions. Talk through your hiring needs with a member of the iMPact team today. It could be the start of a mutually beneficial partnership.
