We recently wrote a blog about employee ghosting, where rather than give notice, and employee just stops showing up or communicating their employer. There is another ghosting trend creeping into the business environment; candidate ghosting. This is where a job candidate who you have been communicating with, just disappears and you are no longer able to reach them. Perhaps they fail to show up for an interview you have scheduled or answer your calls or emails.
What a frustrating situation when you have invested time and money in getting the candidate through the recruiting process. Unfortunately, where there are more available jobs than there are skilled workers, some individuals don’t feel they need to communicate if they have directed to go in another direction. If you have experienced this, it may be time to take a look at your recruiting process and decide if there are ways you can improve the candidate experience to prevent ghosting. Here are some tips, including some advice from a recent article in Fast Company. Some of these same tips can help prevent employee ghosting as well.
Make your job application process easy
Look for areas in the application process where you ask for redundant information or simply make the process difficult for candidates. Shorter recruiting processes re less likely to experience candidate ghosting.
Communicate early and often
No matter how long or short your recruiting process takes, make sure you share that with candidates. Once someone submits a resume or job application, send them an email explaining the process and when they can expect to hear back. Once you narrow down the candidate pool, a phone call to further explain the process and schedule any phone or in-person interviews is helpful.
Consider using an Applicant Tracking System
Using technology can help to make your job of recruiting easier. If you are interested in learning more about what an Applicant Tracking System can do for your hiring process, reach out to a member of our HR team at humanresources@helpside.com
Give job candidates and easy way out
If someone is no longer interested in the job, it is better to know that not know. If your communications, make sure you include language that gives a candidate an easy way out. Something as simple as, “if you are no longer interested in the position, no hard feelings! Please feel free to let us know, so we can remove you from future communications.” can work wonders.
If you have experienced this, it may be time to take a look at your recruiting process and decide if there are ways you can improve the candidate experience to prevent ghosting. Looking for more ideas for recruiting great employees? Check out our Recruiting Toolkit.