So you’ve been ghosted, but your company is not alone. There’s a lot of people just like you that have been ghosted in today’s crazy job market.
Sometimes candidates complain about getting ghosted when there’s low unemployment. And there’s a lot of jobs around the corner. But this post is about recruiters and HR leaders being ghosted…and what you can do about it.
We’ve definitely come full circle when it comes to job ghosting. Candidates have been complaining about it for years, hence the term ‘resume black hole’ that has persisted forever.
In a world where you can apply for a hundred jobs a day using those Easy Apply buttons, it’s made it worse. Recruiters can sometimes not keep up with the amount of applications. But that’s not the case today when applications are few and far between.
So let’s talk about preventive measures to avoid job ghosting.
Here’s when it happens,
- They ghost you in the initial outreach.
- They ghost you when you set up a time to talk to them.
- They also ghost you when you set up an interview with the hiring manager.
- They ghost you on the first day of work.
The last one is especially tough to swallow. They’re still a candidate at this point because they never became an employee and they simply don’t show up. Or worst of all they stop coming to work with no communication ever as to why..
Suffice to say there’s a lot of ghosting going on there.
A better way to frame this issue however is to reverse your thinking.
Instead of saying, “How can I reduce the amount of ghosting that’s going on for my recruiting team because it’s impacting us?” ask yourself this question;
How do I get these people to ghost me faster?
You want them to ghost you earlier in the process where the stakes and the consequences are less than when I put them in front of a hiring manager or when I’ve set up the time to do a phone screen with them, or their first day of work.
Employers must do more to let candidates self-select out of your hiring process.
You want them to ghost you faster. That should be every talent acquisition professionals mindset.
How do you do that?
First be upfront about the job and working conditions. Make sure recruiters tell candidates upfront what’s expected (this goes for the job description too).
Don’t play around, tell them what it pays. Tell them what the hours are, tell them what the bad and the ugly of the job is in your first communication with them. The truth is your friend.
Give them bad stuff well in advance of any interview so they ghost you right then.
If you don’t give them enough detail, and downplay the role, they’re going to ghost you at some point. You want them to ghost you in stage one.
Another great way to cull the ghosters in your funnel is to let them take the initiative. Don’t hold their hands. If they want to work for you, give them the ability to self schedule the phone screen.
But if you make them go out and actually take an action, some people will self-select out of the proces. Then remind them like crazy about next steps and time/dates. Texting them reminders along the way is one of the most effective tools in your toolbox for that.
Remember that you control the candidate experience. If you’ve reached out to somebody passively, gave them a data dump and talked about how fabulous your culture is or the work or the job. And then they go to your website and see everything you’ve said is BS, they’re going to ghost you.
What did your recruiter say to the candidate during that first initial call? Were they on point? Were they on brand? Were they just reciting the same script so they could get somebody hired?
Employers have to look internally at some point on what are the things they can control, what are the things we’re missing before we just say it’s simply a COVID problem. So give these ideas some thought and re-adjust. Ghosting will always happen but you can prevent a certain portion of people from doing it by being conscious of that candidate experience and letting them ghost you much earlier in that process.
