We all know the feeling; you found a job opening that perfectly fits what you’re looking for. You already know all about their corporate culture and can imagine yourself working in a team of people that you resonate with. You send in your application full of excitement and anticipate the moment you get a response asking you to come in for an interview. AND????
But that email never comes. Even worse, you get an interview and never hear back from them. It’s not until you’re looking back at the list of all the positions you’ve applied to that you realize that you’ve been ghosted; by many of them! Though the term “ghosting” originated from the dating world, “business ghosting” is a very common phenomenon as well!
It may feel really disappointing on the receiving end, but it also has negative repercussions on the company’s end of the spectrum, too.
So, if you’re a start-up or an HR recruiter, you might want to think twice before avoiding sending the dreaded rejection email, and below are a few reasons why.
Hurts your candidate experience
The vast majority of job applicants claim that they never heard back from a recruiter after applying for a job. What can be even more detrimental is that an estimated 72% of seekers share their negative job seeking experience online, which in turn can hurt the company’s future recruiting prospects.
Glassdoor is a site used by millions of people worldwide. It’s where employees share their salaries, the ins of the corporate culture, as well as leave reviews on the hiring process. It serves as a glimpse into several critical aspects of how a company operates, so you want to make sure that your business operations, starting from recruiting, are represented in a positive light.
Negative reviews on these platforms are sure to drive away prospects if a job seeker sees that practices such as ghosting are commonplace.
You miss out on potential employees or investors
If you have a bad experience interviewing for a position that you never hear back from, you are likely to talk about it to acquaintances and friends who are, in turn, less likely to consider you the next time they are looking for a new job.
Leaving negative first impressions on people can even mean losing on important business partners or investors simply because they heard from a trusted friend that they had a bad experience with your company.
Here are some tips you can follow so that you don’t accidentally ghost a job applicant and, if you already have, how to respond to negative feedback that may have been posted online about the application process.
- Respond to candidates as soon as you’ve made a decision regarding their application. This eliminates the possibility to save the rejection email for “tomorrow”.
- If you’re a start-up and have noticed a negative review online, this could really hurt your businesses’ reputation. Make sure you address the comment in a respectful and professional manner. By responding to a negative review on a public site, it allows you to address concerns about your company to future prospective employees, and reevaluate how your recruiting is done.
It’s very important to make sure you’re keeping up with responding to all of the reviews, positive and negative.
Don’t forget, reviews also affect your Google ranking!
Remember, 1 to 2 weeks is estimated to be enough time to expect a response from a recruiter. So, if you’re a job seeker that hasn’t heard back from a company regarding your application, don’t hesitate to send a follow-up email.
Do you have any ghosting experience? Text them to us! we would love to hear about it! Or, have you been ghosted by a employer or client?
References
https://talentadore.com/candidate-experience-statistics-know/
https://www.mya.com/blog/recruiter-ghosting/
