The Guide to Not Getting Ghosted

“Ghosting” according to the dictionary “is the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.”. When a candidate decides to ghost you, the candidate is done, one way or the other.

Ghosting happens when a candidate who has engaged with you abruptly disengages. That could mean he or she fails to show up for an interview, or just never gets back to you by phone or email. Candidates sometimes even ghost after accepting a job offer – simply never showing up for their first day. It may seem like odd behavior from a candidate – someone actively seeking a job – but in a competitive hiring market like the one we are in, it happens. No matter the reason, ghosting comes at a big loss to your company. When you’re ghosted, you lose the time it takes to find and engage the candidate.

What Can You Do?

The good news is that there are steps you can take to avoid falling victim to this spectral horror show. Follow these 10 practices to ensure your workplace doesn’t become a home for the undead.

Maximize Your Chances – You will increase your odds of getting candidates to stick if you consider a greater number of them. Choose to invite six applicants for interviews rather than your standard two or three.

Consider Group Hiring Sessions – Some employers frustrated with candidates blowing off job interviews have started to plan group interview sessions. That way, even if 50 percent of them don’t show up, you still have a qualified pool of people to meet with and start vetting in a group setting.

Increase Transparency – Candidates who understand the process and where they fit into it will be more likely to stick with you for the long term. Make sure your HR representatives and hiring managers provide detail to applicants about the timing of the hiring process and the overall steps your company takes when hiring (how many rounds of interviews, background checks, drug screenings, etc.).

Keep The Connection – If there are delays in the hiring process, let your candidates know. This is absolutely critical. A candidate is most likely to ghost when they believe that the hiring company has ghosted!

Be Honest – Make sure your job announcements, advertisements, job descriptions, and other external hiring communications are accurate. There is no better way to lose a candidate than for them to discover somewhere along the way that the job they thought they were applying for is actually different from the reality of the situation.

Personalize The Process – Cookie-cutter communications will make applicants feel they are a nameless cog in a giant machine. They will feel less guilty about blowing you off if they think there is nothing more than an automated machine on the other end of the line spitting out form letters and emails.

Be Timely And Shrink Timeframes – Make sure you have an efficient hiring process in place that allows you to move quickly. If you have arrived at a decision to advance a candidate to the next round or are ready to extend a job offer, don’t delay. At the end of each step, you should let your candidate what the next step even if the next step is that there is no next step. Why would you leave a candidate that you like uncertain whether they will move forward or not?

Don’t Reject Too Quickly – The other benefit to shrinking hiring timeframes is that you can keep your Plan B option in play. If you have made your choice between two qualified candidates, don’t necessarily tell the second-place applicant that you have gone in another direction until the first-place applicant has accepted your offer and shown up for their first day of work. That way, you have a backup plan in place should you find yourself rejected—or ghosted—by your Plan A. But this will only work if you move quickly.

Sell Yourself – Every step along the way, your interview process should be selling your candidates on your organization. This is extremely important. If your candidate feels slighted or just a number, the candidate will be back on the market the day after their first day.

Improve Your Onboarding Process – Make sure your onboarding process—from the first communication letting the candidate knowing they got the job through orientation and their first few weeks of work—are well-thought out and a good reflection of your organization.

While these are all great steps to follow and probably are steps you should do regardless of whether you have a ghosting problem or not, I don’t believe that implementing these 10 steps will necessarily fix your ghosting problem. I have used many of these steps in my recruiting process and some of my candidates still ghost my clients or me. As a recruiter, I face many of the issues that employers face as I personally interview all my candidates so I typically have at least 3 or more conversations with each candidate throughout the process. I prepare each of my candidates for all interviews, assessments and other interviewing steps. By the time one of my candidates gets to the offer stage, I may have had 10 verbal conversations, not to mention numerous text messages and emails. And yet, I still experience ghosting.

I believe there are a few reasons for this phenomenon.

First, some candidates are really just window-shopping. Depending on how you find a candidate, you may have whipped the candidate into a frenzy about the role or your company but once the candidate pauses to think about the new role, he or she may not really be interested. Result? The candidate ghosts.
Second, some candidates become overwhelmed by the process, the idea of leaving their company, starting a new job, etc just becomes too much for them. The easiest step that candidate can do is…ghost.
Third, some candidates are considering multiple jobs and decide that your job is less favorite or their least favorite. It is much easier to ghost than to contact your company, like a professional would, and respectfully decline.

In all three cases, you dodged a bullet. Think about it. Do you really want a window-shopper, a Nervous Nelly or an unprofessional, disrespectful candidate to join your company? I would not want one of these candidates to represent so you shouldn’t want one of these candidates in your organization.

From “Top 10 Ways Employers Can Avoid Getting Ghosted This Halloween…And Beyond” from Fisher Phillps, 10/23/18 (https://www.fisherphillips.com/resources-alerts-top-10-ways-employers-can-avoid-getting).