How to Prevent Ghosting From Millennial and Gen Z Tech Talent?
Tired of getting ghosted? You’re not alone. In 2022, one of the biggest issues that tech recruiters and HR professionals have to contend with is candidate ghosting. Roughly seventy-five percent of recruiters have already dealt with this and if recent Gen Z surveys and employment trends are any indications, that number is only going to grow.
From a recruitment perspective, ghosting is incredibly frustrating. Identifying top candidates takes time, effort, and expertise. Nobody wants to see that go to waste with an M.I.A job seeker. It’s tempting to write ghosting off as a problem with an entire generation of applicants, but living in the past won’t help you improve your recruitment ROI. The only way to do that is by accurately diagnosing the issue and adapting your recruitment process to align with the results.
We’ve compiled a few strategies below to help make things easier.
Ghosting has increased significantly in 2022 – here are a few reasons why:
The first step to reducing applicant ghosting in 2022 is understanding why the situation is occurring. There are several diverse factors contributing to this trend. Some may be outside your control, but many can be used to generate a more ‘ghost resistant’ recruiting and onboarding strategy.
- The end-to-end process is too long
One of the most common reasons why qualified applicants abandon the interview process is also one of the simplest to understand: everything is taking too long. As a recruiter, you want to ensure that you get the right candidate and may feel that taking an extra week to properly vet applicants is worth the wait. Younger job seekers typically prefer a more immediate response. If you don’t get back to them promptly, they may opt for a different opportunity without letting you know.
- Expectations are too high
This is a big one for tech, where skill testing is accepted as part of the hiring process. Let’s say an applicant is remotely interviewing with five companies, each with its own multi-stage interview process. Making unreasonable demands of their time might encourage them to focus on the other four companies. Another common reason Gen Z candidates cited for ghosting? Unreasonable work and education requirements for entry-level jobs.
- Recruiters are not transparent about the role
Put yourself in a job seeker’s shoes for a second and imagine you’ve recently been approached by a recruiter about a position. According to the recruiter, the role comes with a $10,000 increase in compensation and a flexible work-from-home or hybrid schedule…and then you apply to find out that the bump in pay is only $5,000 and hybrid WFH is only offered every second Friday. Are you going to call the recruiter back to politely decline the offer or are you going to abandon the process and look for employment elsewhere?
- Applicants are interviewing for multiple positions
The rise of remote, video-based interviewing has made it easier for recruitment agencies and HR departments to efficiently schedule interviews, but the same is true for job seekers. In some cases, candidates are ghosting you simply because you were their backup option and they’ve gone with a different offer. In a perfect world, they would politely inform you of this to provide clarity, but that’s not always the case. This type of ghosting has unfortunately become more common in today’s employee-friendly job market and it is mostly out of your control – the best thing to do when it occurs is to simply move on.
- There’s no real human connection
Younger millennial and Gen Z job seekers value communication and feedback. If they don’t feel a human connection with their recruiter or the company they are applying for, the chances that they’ll abandon the process are much higher. On a similar note, if you keep them in the dark too long regarding their offer, they may move on to a more responsive offer.
- The applicant has been ghosted before
Let’s hop back into the applicant’s shoes for a second. Imagine that you have applied for your dream job, only to be kept waiting…and waiting…and waiting before ultimately realizing that the company has already filled the position without informing you. Then, a few years later, you apply for a different job and go through the entire interview process only to be met with crickets. Eventually, you realize that the company has gone in another direction without letting you know. After being on the receiving end of this for decades, is it really all that surprising that applicants are turning the tables?
How to prevent ghosting during the interview process?
Once you understand why applicants are ghosting you, determining how to rectify the situation is considerably easier. Losing top candidates during the skill-testing phase? Consider creating a less time-intensive interview process or relying on vetted temp-to-hire contractors instead. Here are the top methods for preventing interview-stage ghosting:
- Be honest & transparent about the role
- Communicate clearly with applicants…
- …including unsuccessful ones.
- Create a streamlined, easy-to-understand process
- Treat candidates with respect
- Be friendly, helpful, and human in your approach
How to prevent ghosting before the job’s start date?
Getting ghosted during the interview stage is frustrating. Getting ghosted by a candidate that has already been hired brings a whole new level of stress. By this point, you’ve probably already invested significant time and money into the process, and you have a client that is expecting a new employee.
It’s possible that the applicant simply found a new job and chose to leave you in the lurch. There’s nothing much that can be done to avoid this lack of professionalism on their part – you just need to dust yourself off and get to work finding a replacement. With that said, in many cases, the reason for ghosting at this stage is related to a gap between the description and the job’s reality.
In an attempt to lure qualified candidates, many businesses and recruiters stretch the truth to make the job appear more attractive than it is. When daily overtime is sold as ‘some OT required’, the ‘competitive compensation’ is lower than advertised, and the ‘excellent perks’ refer to the company’s ping pong table rather than its vacation time or health benefits, skilled candidates are going to decline the position. Sometimes they’ll let you know with a courtesy phone call or email, but often they’ll just abandon ship.
How to Prevent Ghosting – The Bottom Line
The best way to avoid that is by being transparent, open, and responsive from the very first communication.