Is ghosting becoming a problem for your hiring team?

Ghosting is at an all-time high...according to a recent Gallup Poll, ghosting is up to 28%!!! That's a lot of job applicants disappearing during the hiring process.

With numbers that high, it's probably safe to assume that you've been the victim of ghosting...or maybe you're guilty of ghosting...have you ever had someone apply for one of your jobs and never got back to them? Maybe they weren't qualified, but instead of sending them a rejection letter, you just stopped communicating with them. Guess what? That's ghosting too!

So hiring managers and job seekers are both guilty of ghosting.

Why is being ghosted so frustrating?

The biggest pains of ghosting that we've heard from our clients are:

-You can't fill your open positions when you keep getting ghosted

-This puts more pressure on you and your hiring managers

-The bottom line of your business may suffer

-Depending on how far into the hiring process you are, you may have to start all over...which costs money and time!

-It's easy to begin feeling defeated and discouraged

There are a few key stages within the hiring process that are more susceptible to ghosting than others; the job ad, the application process, and the screening phase.

Let's start with the job ad since that's where the job seeker will first have contact with you and your open jobs. The biggest reason, we have found, that job seekers will ghost you right from the beginning is that you use a job description as your job ad. In fact, 82% of employers do this! The truth is, your job description was never meant to be a job ad! Job descriptions are missing a few key items that will lead to ghosting:

• They're not exciting or enticing for job seekers...at all
• They usually don't include the job schedule-job seekers want to know the schedule before applying for a job so they don't waste their time applying for something that won't even work for them
• The pay structure and benefits package is not part of the job description...but this is one of the most important pieces of information to job seekers
• Job requirements are not generally listed in the job description

Using your job description as your job ad will lead to applicants moving on past your job before you even knew they existed! You need to draw job seekers in with a really compelling job ad that markets your company as an employer of choice!

Next, the application part of the process.

The first thing you can do to ensure your application won't drive applicants away is to make it MOBILE-friendly! Job seekers are constantly reaching for their phones to look for jobs. So, if your job applications aren't mobile-friendly, they won't be willing to apply.

Quick-Apply! This is crucial...your job should take no longer than 3 minutes to apply for, at least the 1st stage of the application. Studies have shown that for every minute over 5 minutes that it takes to apply, you will lose 50% of applicants. There is no need to have a long, drawn-out initial application. Ask for just the minimum essential information and then if you still like them, send them the second stage of the application to fill out.

The third important thing to remember for your application process is to NOT USE REDIRECT! 76% of your applicants will ghost you if you make them redirect to another website to apply. Resume/profile parsing is so important...if they can apply right on the job board where they already have a profile set up, it will auto-populate their information and save them so much time!

When considering the application stage of your hiring process, ask yourself, "Am I limiting my ability to attract applicants with this process?" If you think any part of your process may limit you, simply change it up and make it easier on the applicants.

And lastly, the screening stage!

This is probably the most important stage and the one with the highest chance of being ghosted...

The main point here is COMMUNICATION! Just keep an open line of communication with your applicants. Make sure they always know what's going on with the process. Currently, job seekers are only on the market for 18 days (on average) before being hired somewhere. If you aren't communicating with your top picks at least every 2-3 days, they may ghost you and take another job somewhere that has been better at keeping them in the loop.

When doing interviews, remove any distractions, so you can ensure your interviewers can focus 100% on the applicant... this will make them feel important and wanted. According to recent data, 65% of job candidates have left an interview feeling unimportant...this has been due to the interviewer acting distracted or constant interruptions by colleagues while they're conducting the interview. If you don't want to be ghosted at this stage of the hiring process, you need to make the interview as individualized of an experience as possible and keep the job seeker engaged...let them know that you are 100% invested in this interview.

Make sure your interviewers are your brand champions! Paint a picture for the candidate of what it would be like you work for your company (we like to say, "Bob Ross it!")...if the interviewer is excited about the job and they love working for your company, that'll come across during the interview and make the job more enticing and exciting to the candidate. If your applicants don't feel important or excited about working for your company, they will for sure ghost you!

So now what?

While you may not be able to prevent ghosting 100%, especially in a competitive labor market like we are seeing these days, paying attention to these crucial steps in the hiring process will mitigate the risk of applicants disappearing into thin air! If you need help implementing any of these ideas, click the button below and we can set up a time to discuss them!

Let's Chat!