Hiring Hurdles: How to Deal with Candidate "Ghosting"

If you are in a human resource position, you have heard the story. The candidate doesn’t answer the phone for their interview, doesn’t show up for an interview, doesn’t show up for their first day or even leaves at lunch never to be heard from again. This is an increasing trend in the HR industry and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.


Knowing everyone deals with this issue is comforting, but it doesn’t make up for the lost time and wasted resources trying to recruit a candidate for them to not show up. So how do we, as HR professionals, overcome candidate ghosting? While, I do not have the absolute solution, here are a few tips that have worked for me.


Make sure you check to see if the candidate is a chronic applier.

Using a site like indeed.com allows the recruiter to see how many other jobs on the company site the candidate has applied for. Do not ignore these, if the candidate has applied before and was passed up or didn’t respond, do not bother with them this time around.


Make your first interview over the phone.

Let the candidate know a time frame of when you will be calling and have them verify that time will work. Some candidates will not reply back. That is a good time to weed them out. If they do not answer when you call, you, as an employer, know they will have a hard time following through on simple job tasks. Also, if they do not answer, you haven’t wasted as much time as you would if you cleared your schedule for an in-person interview.


Ask them to submit an assessment.

If you catch them for a phone interview, invite them to complete an assessment or personality testing afterwards. Send them the assessment or link and have them e-mail it back to you by a certain deadline. This checks the candidates for interest level, efficiency and responsibility. If they return the assessment by the required deadline, you are on your way to an in-person interview.


In-Person Interview

Schedule this time with them on the phone and send a follow up email. Make sure they know where your office is located and the time and date of the interview. Having this information verified will not allow for any excuses for no shows.


After the interview

Follow-up within three days of the interview. If you wait too long to make a decision, the candidate could lose interest or accept another job opportunity. When you do call, express your excitement for them to join the company and make sure they understand the job they are hired for and the hours they will be working.


Before the First Day

Follow-up with an email, or text message, to check-in before the new employee’s first day. Give them parking instructions, dress code reminder, time, date and any materials they need to bring with them. This gives the employee an open line of communication with their supervisor or hr personnel before their first day for any last minute questions.


This is NOT a fool-proof system, but hopefully it will help you weed out the potential 'ghoster’s' and minimize the time and resources that are wasted when recruiting.