One Major Way to Eliminate Interview & New Hire Ghosting!

Tim Sackett Business Development, Canvas, Change Management, Communication, Good HR, HR, HR Tech, HR Technology, Mobile, Mobile Recruiting, Networking, Talent Acquisition

There’s been a lot written recently on “ghosting” from both the employer side and the candidate side. I’ve heard a bunch of noise that sounds like this, “Well it’s the employer’s fault! They started it! If they hadn’t started ghosting candidates from the start, candidates wouldn’t be ghosting them now!”

Ugh. The blame game! We love blaming other people for our awful behaviors. Can we put all of this to rest!? Employers who ghost candiates are awful and candidates should stop applying to them. Candidates who ghost employers are awful and we should have a national database to track this bad behavior!

The reality is employers are currently facing an epidemic when it comes to two things surrounding ghosting:

  1. Candidates ghosting interviews
  2. New hires ghosting companys on their first day of employment

I’ve spoken to three different TA leaders recently who have almost eliminated their ghosting problem! And their problem was really bad. They had both candidates and new hires ghosting them weekly, sometimes in the double digits each week!

All three did one simple thing that changed their recruiting life. What was it? They added daily, automated SMS into their candidate and new employee communication loop, and it has almost completely eliminated their ghosting problems.

It’s just one more reason why I think SMS automation, like what Canvas offers, is the most underutilized, high ROI recruiting technologies on the planet!

So, what did these three do to solve ghosting? Pretty easy, really, but also ingenious:

  1. For candidates – it’s a combination of keeping them active in the process on a daily basis. So, move fast, using technology to do some screening, but then over-communicate via text messaging on what’s next. Don’t let 24 hours go by without a message, and about every third message, require some sort of response.
  2. For new hires – it’s more of the same. Daily text messages on what’s next in the process. Don’t miss one day all the way up until the start date, with reminders the night before and welcomes the morning of! Over communication to the n’th level!

One other major thing! Frequently allow the candidates and new hires to “opt out” of your process during these communications with something like, “Hey, we can’t wait to meet you (or we are so excited to have you join the team) BUT, at any point you feel this is no longer for you, just reply back to this text and let us know. No hard feelings, we still want to be friends!”

This type of “Opt Out” actually gives those who are most likely to ghost the ability to get out of your process without actually ghosting and allows you to plan better/give time back to those candidates and new hires who are all in!

Now you could actually do all of this manually, but it’s almost impossible to keep up with, especially in high volume hiring! SMS automation and scheduling is the key. The daily messaging is easy, because you develop it once and use the same stuff for everyone!

FOT Note:  We here at FOT like to think we get talent and HR at a different level. At the very least, we are probably going to have a different take than the norm. So it made perfect sense to ask Canvas to be an annual sponsor at FOT, where they’ll sponsor posts like this one, allowing FOT contributors to write, without restriction, on all things related to using new and innovative ideas in recruiting, like using text messaging to interview candidates. If you find yourself thinking, “Hey, I should really look into Canvas!” then go do it, I think you’ll love the technology!