What to Do If a Candidate Ghosts You

You found the perfect candidate. You’re ready to move to the next step. There’s one problem though: you can’t find them. You’ve reached out and haven’t heard back. You are being ghosted.

It’s embarrassing enough to get ghosted in your personal life. Now, you’re trying to offer someone a job, or at least move them along in the process, and you can’t get them to respond. h

It’s a tricky situation. You want to move forward with the candidate, but you can’t wait forever for them to come around. You have to strike a balance between holding out for the prospect you want and putting everything on pause for someone who isn’t even part of your organization yet.

There are steps you can take to manage the situation. Here is what to do if you get ghosted by one of your job candidates:

Check Your Lines of Communication

Since the term “ghosting” comes from the dating world, let’s stick with that metaphor for a minute. Remember the old break up line: it’s not you, it’s me. Keep that in mind as you deal with the situation.

It might not be the candidate’s fault that communication has broken down. Double-check your technique. You might not be reaching out to the right place. If you haven’t heard back by email, try texting them. If neither is working, you might check in on social media.

Don’t Get Desperate

However, don’t push too hard to re-establish contact. You want to give the candidate every opportunity to respond, but there is a limit to how far you should go.

No matter how perfect a candidate seems, you’ll be able to find somebody else to fill the position. You don’t need to go all out to get in contact them.

Give a Deadline

Once you’ve determined that you have made the appropriate effort to contact the applicant, send one last message. Create a timeline for them to respond.

You don’t want to drop the prospect abruptly. After all, there might be a legitimate reason they haven’t responded (illness, a vacation in the Yukon, etc.). However, you can’t wait forever.

Set a deadline, giving them a day or two to get back to you. If you don’t hear from them by then, you know they aren’t interested.

Move On

Don’t get hung up on a single candidate. Even if someone has blown away the field in the recruiting process, it doesn’t guarantee they will be a good employee. The fact that you can’t get in touch with them itself becomes a red flag.

After the appropriate length of time, move on to your next choice.

Avoid Ghosting in the Future

The key takeaway from the experience should be how to avoid it in the future. Review your procedures in light of the ghosting and see if you might do something to prevent it from happening again.

First off, consider streamlining your recruitment process. A lengthy, cumbersome procedure can drive candidates to other opportunities. Second, keep in closer communication from the start. If you build a rapport with an applicant, they are less likely to disappear on you. Finally, you can outline a clear timeline in the early stages. This will keep you and the candidate on the same page.

Finding reliable, trustworthy employees is tough. It gets easier when you have outside help. A strong recruiting partner, like SmartTalent, can bring you the type of worker you need to boost your business.

Contact SmartTalent today to learn more.