The job market has become a popular place for the “ghosting” plot, when one party stops communicating, making the other feel rejected or “ghosted.”
As you can imagine, no one likes to be ghosted. Unfortunately, while some companies aren’t even aware that they are the bad guys in this plot when employers are the ones ghosting candidates, it leads to bad things all around.
What is Job Ghosting?
While this term is gaining in popularity and is used in several digital social settings, it wasn’t commonly used in the hiring process until relatively recently. Many companies may not be aware that they are guilty of ghosting applicants and therefore setting the company back in several ways.
Job ghosting can occur in a variety of ways:
- Not responding to rejected applicants at the early stages of your filtering or screening process
- Not communicating with a candidate during any stage of the interview process after you’ve decided to hire another applicant.
- Extending an offer and then avoiding the humiliation of rescinding it when the budget falls through
Even though nearly every job seeker has a story to share about sending out applications without hearing so much as a rejection letter, this type of ghosting can negatively impact the company’s hiring potential in the future. Plus, with the option of AI to help alleviate mundane communication, employers hardly have the excuse of being too busy to fall back on.
Ghosting is Bad for Business
Your hiring process is a reflection of the company. Clear communication during every step of the hiring process can do wonders for creating an amazing brand. It improves the perception of the company, plus it can lead to a higher offer acceptance rate. Looking at it from another perspective, when a company clearly and respectfully communicates with its applicants during the entire hiring process, it minimizes the damaging social media posts and lamentations that could otherwise occur.
It’s also known that applicants who have a positive experience with a company during the recruitment process are more likely to become customers – even if they don’t get the job offer! That’s huge! All it takes is treating each applicant with timely and respectful communication, and you can help bring business into the company.
It’s important to mention that while all job ghosting should be avoided, it is especially damaging when the candidate ghosted was referred by a current employee. Not only does this damage the brand perception and decrease the likelihood of this candidate becoming a customer, but it can also negatively impact workplace morale, job satisfaction, and employee retention of your current staff.
Keep Applicants in the Loop Efficiently
One of the biggest stages that applicants feel ghosted is in the early stages. Many companies assume that a rejection doesn’t need to be sent. However, there are plenty of candidate relationship management (CRM) software systems and AI capabilities to make this early stage of communication automated. On the flip side, these systems can also reach out to applicants to request additional information if you’re interested in seeing more about their skills or proficiencies.
After the initial filtering or screening phase, communication grows in value. If you want the best talent to choose from, you must be clear with your candidates about the hiring timeline and communicate with them if anything changes. Failure to follow through with communication could result in a candidate feeling undervalued or ghosted, and they may even accept another job offer at a different organization.
The further along the recruitment process goes, the more personalized your communication should be. While automated communication tools exist and should be used when appropriate, remember that candidates value the personalized touch as well, especially as they’ve invested more time into the hiring process as well.
Find the Best Candidates for Your Open Positions
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