Reasons Why Candidates Ghost: How to Handle it
The term “Ghosting” can put you through a traumatic experience in your personal or professional life. Why do you think a candidate would make an effort to apply for a job opening and attend an interview, then, when it’s time to start a new chapter in your company, candidate ghosts you?
Before we dive into why candidates ghost companies, you may be interested in knowing if it was only you who got ghosted or if this is common for candidates to do. Well, some online surveys suggest that candidates ghosting companies is expected or a trend. They stop returning your calls and give no response to your text or emails. This has been the usual style of candidates in recent times.
Did you, as the hiring manager, do something wrong? Is it usual that candidates ghost after the interview process or when the offer letter is sent? You may have had these questions pop up during your hiring process. Well, we may just have the answers to the questions that have been haunting you about candidate ghosting.
Your Unstructured Hiring Process Made the Candidate Uncomfortable
Just like what you go through to find an eligible candidate for a position, hunting for a job is a tedious task for job seekers. Keeping the tedious tasks you both go through aside, let’s talk about the part where it might have gone wrong?
Candidates ghost companies, but that isn’t to say there are no steps you can take to prevent that from happening. Measure your hiring process and figure out if it’s structured or not. How long does it take for you to respond to the candidate? By chance, did you ghost the candidate?
Usually, skilled candidates find their suited jobs within 10 days (maximum). Now that you have a timeframe you can use to measure your hiring process, you may have to analyse if your hiring process is taking too long in terms of the average number of days the survey represents. Even if it takes longer than expected, you should ensure that you keep the candidate informed about the process. Your communication can help to keep them hooked to the offer, and when communication fails, there is a chance the candidate may feel otherwise.
You might have missed responding to the candidate because of the work in your pipeline, and that’s completely normal. However, your candidates may think of this as a sign of rejection, or feel frustrated, causing them to decide you are not worth the wait.
To continue the process without delays or taking too much effort, you can use the Applicant Tracking System and book a demo with LogicMelon.
Applicant Tracking System helps you keep track of your entire hiring process, so the chances of candidates ghosting can be greatly reduced.
Your Unstructured Hiring Process Made the Candidate Uncomfortable
The Candidate Accepted an Offer from a Different Company
This topic is to make you aware that candidates would like to keep their options open. Like you, other hiring managers have done an excellent job drafting their job descriptions to attract candidates.
Now that you are reminded about the candidates keeping their options open, here are a few reasons to analyse why candidates ghost companies or may prefer a different company.
Unstructured Hiring Process: As discussed above, your company’s unstructured hiring process may have been a red flag.
Communication Delay: The delay in communication may have made the candidate think it was a sign of rejection and take another offer instead of waiting.
Better Pay: Firstly, ensure that the pay range is mentioned in your job description. Second, do thorough research into whether or not your company is providing a salary based on industry standards. There is a chance you may have missed updating your resources. Maybe the candidate found another company’s pay scale to be better than yours.
Travel distance: Well, this is something completely the candidate’s preference. It’s evident that candidates prefer a company with a shorter commute distance. But you can try to convince them by providing a flexible work culture, meaning offering work from home while encouraging them to be present at the office for important meetings.
Better benefits: This factor is not entirely dependent on the hiring manager because you must stick to your company’s benefits and mission. If there is a benefit in another company that is worth implementing in yours, you can always pitch it to your CEO.
Many factors might have been a reason for candidate ghosting, but it is necessary to look for areas that require attention and correct it.
The Candidate Used Your Offer as Leverage
Candidates ghost companies for multiple reasons and scenarios. This reason we will discuss now is entirely up to the candidate. In this case, they decided to ghost the company even before attending your interview.
The candidate may have wanted a hike in their current company, and they need an offer letter with the pay scale mentioned to negotiate. There is nothing you can do about this because you can’t read the candidates’ thoughts. They will perform well to get the offer letter.
But you can try the following methods to make your organisation more attractive and find out their intentions:
Be You: Stick to your hiring morale and give your best like you always do. Present all your perks, benefits, growth process, and work culture during the interview process. The chances are high that the candidate might actually prefer to join your company.
Pay Attention: Obviously, you will shoot the question, “Why do you want to leave your current company?” Though this is a standard question that you ask with every candidate, don’t take their answers for granted. Try to analyse their answers. You can also further question their notice period and relieving date.
Conclusion
Candidates ghost companies, and that’s something that is out of your control. All you can do is keep the hiring process as practical and realistic as possible, keep communication channels open, let them know you will be available to clear any doubts, and follow up regularly. If they are the right fit for your company, effective recruitment might drag back to your company.
LogicMelon
Award-winning recruitment software that will find, attract, hire and analyse the way you want to work. At LogicMelon, we have experienced software recruitment marketing specialists to help you build effective recruitment solutions supported by the best customer service you’ll find anywhere!
Email: sales@logicmelon.com or call LogicMelon (UK) +44 (0) 203 553 3667 (USA) +1 860 269 3089
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