The process of hiring the right candidate for a job can be challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. It becomes even more frustrating when job applicants suddenly disappear without a trace, commonly known as "ghosting." Ghosting by job applicants can lead to significant delays in the hiring process, wasted resources, and a negative impact on your organization's reputation. Below, I break down how to stop getting ghosted by your job candidates

Learn more about People Advisory Services (PAS) on our website or book some time with our People Operations Manager for a PAS consultation.

1. Be Attractive:

• Showcase Your Company Culture
  To make your organization more attractive to potential candidates and prevent ghosting, emphasize your company culture. Clearly communicate your values, mission, and work environment on your website and during the interview process. Highlight your company's unique strengths, perks, and benefits to attract candidates who are a better cultural fit. An enticing company culture can inspire applicants to stay engaged and committed. 
• Offer Competitive Compensation and Clear Career Progression
  Competitive compensation packages are critical for attracting top talent. Research industry standards and offer a salary and benefits package that aligns with the market. Consider including performance-based incentives to motivate and retain your employees, making your offer even more appealing. Then, make sure they are aware of growth opportunities in your business paired with top-notch training to ensure success in that new role.

2. Be Diligent

• Streamline Your Hiring Process
  Diligence in your hiring process is crucial to preventing ghosting. Streamline your processes to avoid overwhelming candidates. Ensure that your job descriptions are clear and concise, and simplify the application process to make it user-friendly. Keep candidates informed about each stage of the hiring process and provide realistic timelines for decision-making. By being diligent, you can maintain an efficient, organized, and respectful recruitment process. 
• Conduct Structured Interviews
  To reduce the chances of being ghosted, it's vital to ensure that candidates have a clear understanding of the role and your company. Conduct well-structured, thorough, and consistent interviews that provide insight into job responsibilities and the organizational culture. Be transparent about expectations and challenges, giving candidates the information they need to make an informed decision. 

3. Be Resourceful:

• Implement Technology
  Resourcefulness can help you stay efficient and responsive in your hiring process. Leverage technology to your advantage. Use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to manage applications and communicate with candidates. Automated email responses can keep applicants informed about the status of their application and next steps. Online scheduling tools and recruiters can make interview scheduling more convenient for both parties. 
• Maintain a Positive Candidate Experience
  Resourcefulness in creating a positive candidate experience is essential. Ensure that applicants feel valued and respected throughout the process. Engage in courteous and professional interactions, and express appreciation for their time and effort. By being resourceful in creating a positive candidate journey, you can foster stronger relationships and reduce the risk of ghosting. Further, by ensuring a positive experience means that even if they aren’t necessarily a great fit for your office, they may know others that are. Leveraging both your personal relationships as well as those you meet can bring in other great candidates.
• Follow Up
  Being resourceful also means staying in touch with candidates even after they accept your offer. Continued communication during the onboarding process is essential to maintaining their engagement and preventing any last-minute changes of heart. It also contributes to building a strong foundation for a successful working relationship.

Conclusion
In summary: being attractive, diligent, and resourceful are the three key pillars to avoid getting ghosted by job applicants. In People Advisory Services, we help you to be more attractive by communicating your culture, developing a clear career progression plan, consulting on when it makes sense to offer benefits and how you can expect it to make an impact, and conduct compensation comparisons. We help you be more diligent by providing a structured interview process, offer guidance on reference calling, and improve interviewing soft skills with follow up. Then we help you be more Resourceful by optimizing your ATS system, identifying and leveraging personal relationships, and instilling processes that promote positive candidate experiences through the entire hiring process. By following these guidelines, you can increase your chances of attracting and retaining top talent for your organization while minimizing the impact of ghosting.

Our Current Big Successes:

• Refining your interview processes - so you can directly compare candidates and ensure they know what is expected.
• Standardizing and professionalizing training programs - so you know exactly what they know and where to improve.
• Improving feedback systems- so you can see problems coming before they become bigger.

Testimonials:

Here's what some of our satisfied clients have to say about Club Capital's People Advisory Services:

• "This service has helped me structure an onboarding process in an extremely professional manner. By implementing these strategies I am able to shorten the timeframe expected to bring new team members up to speed and get better results quicker!" 

• "Wow, I feel like my training program is kindergarden and yours is college." 

• "I stopped calling references because I wasn't getting any good information, but Lee's guidance on how to do it appropriately and effectively was invaluable. It helped me gather more meaningful insights about potential hires and confirmed some potential concerns I had." 

• "I'm so much more confident in my interviewing now that its structured to make sure I have a comprehensive picture of what the candidate could turn out like. It saved me from hiring another person that had no interest in making calls all day" 

Who Am I?:

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lee, the leader of our People Advisory Services at Club Capital, where I've had the privilege of working for nearly 2.5 years. During this time, I've consistently engaged with agents, addressing their questions and providing support to help them make informed decisions and develop processes that create the happiest, most productive teams.

My journey to offering these services stems from a deep-seated passion for optimizing workplace dynamics. In addition to my tenure at Club Capital, my background spans small business consulting, leadership development, organizational change, and feedback improvement. My educational foundation includes a degree in Business Management Change and Consultancy from Maastricht University, following a career in finance with Morgan Stanley.

Learn more about People Advisory Services (PAS) on our website or book some time with our People Operations Manager for a PAS consultation.