The three ghosts of recruiting…
As we celebrate Halloween, it’s a good time to talk about the “three ghosts” in recruiting – and how to “ghost-bust” them out of your process.
Ghosting refers to one party vanishing from the interview process without a trace. Here’s how it happens.
Candidate Ghosts: 40% of candidates believe it is reasonable to ghost an employer. Why? Well, it seems we have trained them that way as we don’t always communicate with them in a timely fashion. (See Employer Ghosts.)
How to ghost-bust Candidate Ghosts:
Keep the process moving. I once had a candidate tell me if they applied on a Thursday and hadn’t heard anything by Friday evening, they went into the weekend assuming they weren’t a fit. If your process takes longer than 24-48 hours to give the candidate an initial update, they may move on to other opportunities.
Keep the lines of communication open and follow up promptly.
Focus more on the candidate’s goals and what they want in their next role.
Give clear next steps and commit to and meet timelines.
Employer/Hiring Manager Ghosts: 77% of job seekers say they have been ghosted by an employer. Wow, that’s an appalling statistic, given the tight job market. We need to be able to deliver bad news promptly and with as much specificity as possible. Recent social media posts about candidates receiving feedback after 3 or 4 years tell me we have a way to go to make these ghosts disappear.
How to ghost-bust Employer Ghosts:
Ensure your candidate communications close the loop with all applicants as soon as you know they are not going forward in the process.
Set up alerts or reminders to recruiters to “clear the queue” of applicants when making an offer or recording a hire.
Candidates: Ask for a contact and follow up with managers or recruiters after an interview to find out next steps.
Job Posting Ghosts: A recent survey found that 20% of managers have open postings that they don’t plan to fill until 2023 – and 50% of managers surveyed said they keep job postings open because they are always open to new employees. While evergreen requisitions are a useful tool for jobs you are always hiring for, be careful that it doesn’t hurt your overall reputation if you don’t respond to all of the candidates.
How to ghost-bust Job Posting Ghosts:
Candidates: Look at the age of the posting – the older it is, the higher the likelihood that the organization isn’t hiring right now.
Recruiters: Make sure you only post jobs you are actively looking for and remove those where the hiring manager isn’t quite ready to move forward. Communicate clearly with the candidates waiting in the queue about the status and when to expect next steps.
The more we design recruiting processes to move at the pace of the job market and treat each other with respect through transparent communication, the fewer ghosts will appear in our process.
Happy Halloween – and happy ghostbusting!
