We had a spirited conversation the other day about companies who have “ghosted” candidates. Unfortunately it seems to be a very common occurrence in my industry of sports and entertainment. However, today I’m going to talk about job seekers who ghost the companies they are engaged with (yes, this does happen…I can attest to it from experience). When a job seeker ghosts your company, it can end up costing the organization quite a bit of time and costs with staring over the search to losing productivity in your OWN work responsibilities.
Sometimes there are signs when a job seeker is waffling: there never seems to be a convenient time to catch up on the phone, you sense the excitement has gone away when discussing the role, and sometimes it’s, “I need to run this location by my spouse/family” after a number of interviews.
You cannot control the behavior of all candidates who have applied but you can certainly ensure steps are taken to eliminate most of the common reasons. Some key areas to consider:
How does your interview process look?
o Is it too long? Is there too much time between job seeker interactions? The cream of the crop is not going to just sit and wait for your opportunity. They want to be “recruited” and made to feel they are the missing piece to your corporate puzzle. Provide feedback to candidates as soon as possible after the interview while it is fresh on your mind.
o Does it seem disorganized? When the candidate shows up are they waiting for the hiring manager 10-15 minutes after the stated time. Does the hiring manager walk in without the job seekers credentials? Or comes across in a “flying by the seat of their pants” style?
o Are you focusing only on how the job seeker can fill the role OR are you evaluating your job from the mind of the candidate? If you have a better understanding of what the candidate is looking for you will not only address all of their concerns your chances of finding the best fit improve.
o Has your company become too dependent on technology? Sometimes, due to our busy schedules, we allow technology to do the initial work for us and we end up with a candidate pool who all had the same key words in their application. The job search process has to get back to a more personal tone to some degree. People are the most important asset a company has…treat your hiring this way.
Is your candidate communication effective?
o Are all the parties involved in the hiring on the same page? Have the parties involved in this hire spoken with one another to make sure everyone is looking for the same qualities and understands the ultimate goal of the role?
o Do you have one point person to communicate with the candidate? At the beginning of every search you should make sure who the contact for candidates will be. This doesn’t mean others in the organization might not speak with them but puts the onus on this ONE person to stay in communication. Could be HR or it could be the direct hiring manager.
Is your company living up to its stated mission statement or core beliefs?
o Is your company as advertised during the interview? If your values include Integrity or Transparency then you better make sure that is true with every interaction including the interview. As well, would everyone the candidate is interviewing with relay the same beliefs?
So, as an industry, how do we become a leader in fixing this? I know it's not going to be easy.
At the end of the day one of my commenters from Part I stated, “It comes down to common decency. People either have it or not. They will only get it once they find themselves on the other side”. Maybe they’re right…