.png)
There’s one advantage to being an over-50s jobseeker. Compared to younger generations, you don’t get ghosted as often: mainly because your application has already been weeded out for displaying a scary amount of experience!
Ghosting in Recruitment
When it comes to the recruitment world, there’s more than one type of ghost. There’s the ghost job (either the advert hasn’t been taken down or the role never existed in the first place) or one of the parties suddenly stops communicating, leaving everyone wondering what’s going on. I don’t even bother counting the recruiters who never bother getting back to applicants any more – it’s no secret they’re overwhelmed in today’s jobs market, although it would be polite to include a cut-off date in the advert.
Look across the pond and, with more than half of all jobseekers reporting they’ve experienced ghosting, legislators have decided to act. From January 1, employers in Ontario, Canada, with more than 25 staff will have to notify interviewed candidates whether a hiring decision has been made within 45 days of the final interview. In addition, job adverts will have to disclose whether AI is being used in the recruitment process and if the role is an actual vacancy. There are also requirements around record-keeping.
In the US, a number of states are debating lesser requirements. In New Jersey there’s a proposed law to give interviewed candidates a clear timeline and decision. There is also a requirement for the removal of job listings within two weeks of the post being filled, and disclosure about whether the post is real or speculative. In California, a bill has been introduced that would require job adverts to say whether the position is currently vacant. In Kentucky there was a debate about the merits of introducing legislation that would require job adverts to disclose whether they were for real or anticipated vacancies.
Meanwhile, EU member states are implementing the Pay Transparency Directive into national law. This requires all employers to disclose the starting salary or range in the job advert or before the first interview. Some commentators think resulting regulations might provide a cooling effect on ghost adverts.
In the UK, there’s nothing pending but it begs the question, is legislation really necessary or could we all, well, just grow up and stop treating each other badly?
Why Do Employers Ghost?
1. The budget for the role is withdrawn during the hiring process and you’re worried about this looking indecisive to candidates. Really?! Get a grip. About 15 years ago, the phrase ‘must be comfortable with ambiguity’ used to appear in job ads, these days we all know that things change. Even more importantly, from the candidates’ perspective, this isn’t a rejection of them, which is a relief. Also, the budget might be reinstated within a few weeks. In today’s job market, that might mean your favoured candidates are still available. Let them know what’s happened and ask if you can stay in touch. At worst you’ll get an unprofessional response that enables you to discount them, at best you won’t be starting the candidate search from scratch.
2. Disorganisation. Otherwise known as lack of process: a situation where no one knows who is responsible for getting in touch with unsuccessful candidates. Sigh… Meet up, either remotely or physically and map out the candidate journey. Look at when you need to communicate and who should be responsible. Whoever is assigned responsibility for any part of the process needs to ensure it happens. We know workplaces get busy but this isn’t difficult. If candidates are also likely to be customers, it can help with customer goodwill too.
3. Our preferred candidate might turn us down so we need to keep hold of everyone else. And you’re really going to do this by ghosting them? While you’re not talking, they’re marking you down as rude, disorganised or both. Be honest, say it was a close-run thing and you’ve found another candidate but ask to keep their details. If they’re professional and plan A does fall through, get back in touch – they may still be in the market.
4. Avoidance tactics. Otherwise known as ‘inability to have difficult conversations’. Oh dear, where to begin. Life is amazing: it has moments of great joy, others of great sorrow – and there are times when you have to have a difficult conversation, including rejecting someone you’ve interviewed and liked. It might feel safer to let silence do the talking but it isn’t: you don’t know when you are next going to meet that person but you do know they will remember you for being unprofessional and failing to do your job. Be professional, courteous and, if at all possible, make your feedback constructive.
5. The technical glitch. You’ve done everything properly and arranged for rejection emails to be sent but there’s a computer malfunction and they don’t go. A candidate gets in touch explaining they realise they’ve been unsuccessful and asking for feedback. Pressures of the day job mean you don’t do anything with it. After a couple of months the former candidate receives a brief to write an article about ghosting for Brave Starts and contacts your press office for comment! You now have to apologise and investigate. HR tells you the emails were sent but never left the server because of a glitch. These things happen – the lesson being that, if a candidate emails when you think everything has been done, make sure you take 30 seconds to forward that email and double check. Because you never know what ghosted candidates will do next…
6. Toxic culture. Some organisations consider people to be disposable. This particular trick might be a power trip or it might be because they don’t see employees as people; either way they don’t see why they should communicate with candidates. If this is the reason, then from a candidate’s perspective it’s no great loss. A toxic recruitment process usually means a toxic work environment – and who needs that? They’ll be the ones wondering why they can’t keep hold of good staff, why they’re not productive (quiet quitting, folks!) and why customer sentiment isn’t great – it’s all those people they’ve ghosted and ex-employees spreading the word.
Why Do Candidates Ghost?
In most cases, it’s down to not wanting to have a difficult conversation because they have either received a better offer or something has caused them to have a change of heart about their application.
Either way, it’s unprofessional short-term thinking and there’s no excuse. The obvious consequence is that in a few years’ time, when you’re applying for your next role, you will find yourself facing a panel of interviewees including the hiring manager you ghosted. You will have a moment of recognition, you will realise they changed jobs and you will know that, however good your interview, they will be arguing against you getting your new dream role because you’re unprofessional, rude and therefore can’t be trusted.
The core of the workplace relationship is mutual trust and respect. Workplaces are populated by people you have to see regularly and collaborate with. It shouldn’t need legislation to say that ghosting by any party has no place in a decent workplace.
