Candidate ghosting is one of the main issues recruiters and talent teams are facing right now. Finding and engaging great talent is difficult right now so to lose them part way through or at the end of a process is particularly damaging for busy teams.
But part of the reason it keeps happening is a lack of communication. We’re all so used to the “employers’ market” of the last few years that it’s hard to transition over to wooing candidates to your business.
Whether you’re hiring yourself, or using an outside recruiter, there are a few things that should go into a process to stop candidates from dropping out of the process and leaving you empty handed.
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1. Find out what a candidate’s motivations for talking to you are.
There will be reasons they’ve applied for the job, answered your messages, or been open to talking to a recruiter. Find out what they are so you’re fore-armed if those motivations begin to wane.
2. Discover the main “deal breakers” for a candidate about a company’s culture.
Does the business offer these things? Do they plan to if not? If diverse culture and flexible working hours are important to the candidate and the company doesn’t or isn’t planning to offer them, you might as well move on.
There’s no point getting into a process and wasting your time, your recruiters’ time, or the candidate’s. This could be a key reason candidates ghost.
3. Be upfront about salary.
Few candidates are going to be willing to take a significant drop in salary. Yes, culture and benefits have an impact on decisions, but most people will be looking to at least stay the same.
Discuss salary early on so you don’t waste your and the candidate’s time.
4. Prepare to sell your company.
Yes, technically you are the one doing the interviewing and screening, but candidates are also screening and interviewing you. You need to be prepared to succinctly talk about your company, its culture, and why the candidate should work for you.
Ask these five questions to prevent candidate ghosting…
5. At the start of the process ask: “What are the top three things that would make a new role the right one for you?”
Ask candidates what’s important to them. This will help solidify why they’re open to a new opportunity from the beginning of the process. You’ll also use this to refer back to later to help candidate ghosting at the end of the process.
6. What would make you stay at your current role? What would you do if these areas changed?
This is a really important question. It allows you to gauge how dissatisfied they are in their role and how likely it is they’ll stay. Some people don’t want the hassle of moving and would allow themselves to be swayed by minimal changes.
7. What will happen if your current company tries to persuade you to stay?
The answer to this question will help you decide how bought into your process the candidate is. If they seem unsure about what they’d do, or try to avoid the question, you might need to dig deeper to see how committed they are.
8. Just prior to making an offer, ask the candidate this: “At the beginning of the process, you said A, B, & C were your main motivations. The company have met those motivations. So if we make you an offer, will you accept? Is there anything else you need to know to be 100% sure about this position?
This is when you refer back to what the top three things that would make a role right for them are. You need to make sure the company have met their motivations though.
At this point, you’re drawing them into a verbal contract and cementing the decision in their mind.
