The hiring process can be time-consuming and costly to your productivity. If all goes smoothly, you’ll contact top candidates, interview them, and make hiring decisions quickly so your team can once again be at full strength.
But what if it doesn’t go smoothly? Unfortunately, candidates can blindside you. It’s all too common for candidates to not show up to an interview, ghost you for the second interview, and not show up for their first day at work. It puts you back to square one in the hiring process and may leave you with a lingering feeling of unease.
Here are three ways candidates can blindside you and how to deal with it.
Not Showing Up to an Interview
A surprising number of Millennials and Generation Z members don’t show up to the initial interview. This may be frustrating, as it causes you to go back to your initial candidate pool. Also, if they were candidates whose qualifications you were particularly interested in, you may feel dismayed at not getting the chance to hire.
Ghosting a Second Interview
“Ghosting” occurs when a second interview appointment has been made, you’re interested in the candidate, and…they are a no show. No call, no e-mail, no nothing. Like an initial no-show, this can mean a particularly promising candidate has not only vanished but hasn’t told you, either. Ghosting is not only a phenomenon; it’s actually on the rise.
Not Showing Up to the First Day at Work
Then, there’s The Case of the Vanishing Employee. You’re hired the person and prepared the paperwork, but when the first day on the job rolls around, the person doesn’t ever actually come to work.
Solutions
It can be challenging to reorient your managerial strategy in these cases because they violate many of the job search norms you may have grown up learning. The job search process, if you were a candidate, was a chance to show how responsible you could be and impress your hiring manager.
Solutions rely on realizing that younger generations may not feel that way. Ghosting behavior could be their version of what they believe companies do to them: promise to get back to them about the job and then don’t. Factor in the fact that the job market is currently very strong and top-notch candidates have very little reason, in their minds, to wait around as managers make a decision.
The following can be solutions:
Build a personal rapport with the candidate.
Don’t make candidates feel that they are interchangeable cogs in the wheel. Make a personal connection and personalize your responses to them.
Keep them apprised of how much you look forward to the interview/first day on the job.
If you’re calling someone in or have hired them, make sure you frequently communicate to let them know how much you’re looking forward to their input/work.
Text rather than e-mail.
Generation Z and Millennials may not check their e-mail. They text instead. If you’re communicating by e-mail, that disconnect may be part of the problem.
Need help hiring?
At Expert Staffing, we take pride in offering the most comprehensive recruitment strategies in the industry. To find out how to use our services to connect with fantastic candidates in your industry, contact a consultant today.
