#008 Employer Ghosting: Why It Happens During a Hiring Process

Did you apply for a job posting or you were interviewed for a position but never heard back from a recruiter about it? If this situation resonates with you, then continue reading this article until the end.

I am going to share some insights why recruiters fail to get back to you.

When we don’t hear back or when a communication drops off suddenly either from an employer or the candidate’s side during the hiring process, then we use a term Ghosting, which is used commonly these days.

Ghosting can happen either during a job application stage or anytime afterwards throughout the hiring process. It could be after a recruiter’s prescreen, written assessment, technical interview, or ever when you reached an offer stage.

Alright!

Having said that, Let me unpack for you why some employers ghost or cut off communication with candidates.

Before I dive into it, let me make this point clear that it’s not always you who did something bad during the hiring process that led to no communication. There could be numerous other factors responsible for ghosting. Let’s discuss them.

1. Offered or Hired another candidate:

Some of the reasons for this could be

(i)When your skills and experience do not match with what a recruiter or a HM is looking for in a new role, they pass on your candidacy.

(ii) When you reschedule interviews or delay submitting any assessment that is a part of the interview process, then there are chances that an employer already has good candidates in pipeline, and thus you miss out on that.

(iii) They might have given an offer letter to their preferred candidate

and are waiting on their response.

(iv) They might not have received good feedback on you during

the reference check.

(v) Or when a recruiter or a HM finds that you have an attitude

problem, they may drop you off the hiring process.

Now, moving along the second main reason for an employer ghosting is when a position went on hold.

2. Position on Hold: The company might decide not to fill an open position at the current time. This could be due to a company's restructuring or any other internal reasons.

3. Position Revised: Sometimes hiring managers (HMs) or recruiters realize that the job description isn't drawing the right applicants or may be attracting candidates who are better suited for a different role, so they decide to reword it. OR at times, HMs add new skills or want to see different level of candidates altogether.

4. HM’s indecisiveness: Some HMs take longer or are not able to decide whether or not hiring borderline candidates is a right choice. So, they ask recruiters to see a few more candidates before they give their final call.

5. Slow moving position: When the position is on back burner, the HMs or recruiters move really slow on such positions.

6. The budget has yet to be approved for the open role, and they are still waiting for the green signal.

7. Mergers & Acquisition: When a merger and acquisition is in the middle of the process, a hiring manager might want to reassess the open positions altogether.

8. The concerned recruiter or HM suddenly left the company, and the candidates, who are in process, their details are not documented anywhere.

9. The concerned recruiter or a HM are busy with other projects, are sick, or might be on vacation. This delays the hiring process.

10. An employer’s response might have ended up in your email’s spam folder.

The reason why recruiters fail to inform you is because of 4 below factors

1. Overloaded Recruiters: When company’s recruiters are overloaded with open requirements and are juggling several requisitions at a time, then even the best of recruiters can miss closing the loop unintentionally. This gets really heightened/messy when they don’t have good recruitment tech stack in place to automate some of the mundane tasks.

2. Careless/Inexperienced Recruiters: Another reason could be laid back attitude of some recruiters. They don’t bother to close the communication loop with unqualified candidates or applicants. Plus, some less-experienced recruiters do not reply to candidates in fear of how the other person will respond. So, they try to avoid getting into tough conversations.

3. Third-Party Recruiters: When an employer relies on agency recruiters, then sometimes, they don’t do a great job of communicating a message to candidates.

As external recruiters work for many clients and often have to switch their priorities quickly, so sometimes they get sidetracked on following up well with the candidates.

Plus, many agency recruiters are measured only on filling positions, and there are no incentives for them for being nice with potential candidates, especially ones that are unqualified for the role, so they don’t care about it.

4. No Formal Talent Acquisition Department: In some smaller companies and startups, hiring managers or generalist HR are responsible for recruiting as well. Besides their core job, they have to shell out extended hours for sourcing or pre-screening candidates. Therefore, at times it gets hard for them to reply to everyone.

If you still have any questions regarding employer ghosting, reach out to me at nikita.mehrotra@therecruitmentinsights.com .

I would love to help:)

Nikita