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Nearly four in five job candidates have ghosted an employer
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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Two years ago, during the tightest labour market, employers were routinely complaining about job seekers ‘ghosting’ them. For the record, ghosting means not returning calls, showing up for interviews, replying to texts or even showing up for work once hired.
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Well, apparently this has become an issue again. A survey conducted by Indeed found 77 per cent of Canadians have ghosted between one and four employers in the last 12 months.
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When this was a major issue two years ago, it was a common refrain for employers to talk about how irresponsible it is of job seekers to disappear in the hiring process. Employers were upset that they were earnest about interviewing and hiring people and how is it possible to imagine that job seekers could be so rude, self-involved and discourteous.
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At the time, I found this rather amusing, since employers have been ghosting job candidates for decades. They accept applications but never contact those they aren’t interested in interviewing; arrange interviews and never follow-up with candidates; and rarely if ever reply to calls, emails and social media messages.
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I could provide a critique on either side here. Job candidates should be more engaged with their future employment and communicate well with employers, even if they aren’t going to pursue a job.
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It’s not just curtesy, ghosting can be a job killer too. In fact, 84 per cent of employers say they believe it’s wrong for job seekers to ghost businesses. And 79 per cent of employers in Canada say they keep records of job seekers who do this, and won’t consider them for future jobs.
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Some employers are working harder at this. According to the Indeed survey, 51 per cent of employers surveyed in Canada say they have strategies in place to keep candidates engaged during the hiring process so they are more likely to stick around.
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And while I can say a lot about how job seekers can approach their job search, employers continue to face a skills shortage and will likely face a labour shortage again in the next 12 months. The federal caps on international students and temporary foreign workers will likely tighten the availability of workers and employers will see a significant drop in applicants.
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In the career development sector, we need to work with applicants to ensure they are regularly communicating with employers.
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In his seminal work, ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Stephen Covey tells readers that we can be efficient with systems, technology and data, but we can’t be ‘efficient’ with people. In this, he meant we can’t just brush people off because we’re busy with other things. This applies as much to job seekers as it does to employees, friends, children, siblings, parents and our partners.
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Covey would encourage employers to automate, delegate and eliminate time-wasting activities and those which produce the least amount of impact to the organization just to free up the necessary time to be intentional with the most important people, be they customers, employees or even potential job candidates, now and in the future.
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For too long, employers have brushed candidates off with one short sentence: “Only selected candidates will be contacted for interviews.”
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If employers are so concerned about the discourtesy of job seekers, perhaps they can choose this opportunity to lead by example. It can also be a tremendous source of future job candidates rather than having to go through an arduous advertising process for each job posting.
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Also, if employers are looking for more of an incentive, job candidates will be more likely to apply for a job posting if it contains one simple sentence: “We will follow-up with everyone who applies.”
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Encourage employers to be the outlier. Suggest they send a short ‘thank you’ email to each candidate who applies for a position. Employers can even use social media to keep candidates posted about the hiring process and get positive exposure at the same time.
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Employers would extend this courtesy to customers and after all, aren’t job seekers just customers who select their job offer rather than their product or service.
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We’ll be discussing ghosting from both perspectives at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Tuesday April 2nd at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland. Visit: www.MotivatingMondays.ca on Monday to join the session LIVE.
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