That number seems high, but it’s not. I’m assuming 99% of recruiters will say they have been ghosted by a candidate. My dad used to love telling me when I was a kid, two wrongs don’t make a right!

Greenhouse released their latest Candidate Experience survey last week and it’s packed with some eye-opening findings, but none larger than the one in the title!

Here are some others:

• More than 70% of job seekers said they will not submit a job application if it takes longer than 15 minutes to complete.
• Almost 58% of candidates expect to hear back from companies in one week or less regarding their initial application.
• Over 70% of job seekers want feedback on an interview. More than 60% said that receiving feedback during the interview process, even if they do not receive a job offer, would make them more inclined to apply to future jobs at that company.
• The most important DE&I investments candidates evaluate when considering a company are:

a.    employee benefits such as coverage for remote and flexible work arrangements and gender affirmation paid leave (49%)
b.    employee reviews on platforms like Glassdoor on progress and opportunities (47%)
c.    diverse leadership team or board (34%)
d.    promoting affinity/employee resource groups on the careers page (34%)

Why are we all being so rude to each other?

I think candidates and organizations are doing this simply because there are no consequences. Ghost an interview and you will probably be “black-balled” by that one recruiter, for that one position, for the time that recruiter is at that company. Ghost a candidate and the candidate will get a bit pissed and might not apply to your jobs any longer unless you have a great brand, then well, okay, they’ll probably apply to your jobs again.

None of us have consequences for our crappy job process behaviors!

We love to say that we do, but really we don’t, or the consequences are so small it’s akin to a hand slap. “Don’t treat candidates poorly or they’ll stop buying your products!” Or maybe they won’t, kind of depends on how good your products and services are.

At some point, there should be a recruiter code of ethics and a measure that follows your around. A RECRUITER BLOCKCHAIN! (contact me privately as I’m currently taking angel investment on this idea! jk) Can you imagine?!

A call is coming in from Timmy the Recruiter, who currently has a 67% reply after interview rating on THE RECRUITER BLOCKCHAIN. F! Timmy, that sucks, I’m not picking up or replying to his outreach, he sucks! OMG – every good recruiter in the world wishes this was a reality! We also wish it worked both ways!

Hey, Timmy, the Software Engineer looks good, I should contact him for our job! Oh wait, he’s ghosted 3 out of 7 interviews in the past 12 months, screw that guy! I’m not taking the risk of putting him in front of my hiring manager with that record!

A boy can dream!

Yeah, but Tim, we didn’t really ghost them!

Yeah, I know! Your ATS automation sent them an email that said, “Thanks, no thanks, here’s a BOGO offer for our products!”

Candidates REALLY love your BOGO offers in rejection emails! Keep it up! (again, jk)

If a candidate interviews, they deserve more than automation. They deserve some personalization around appreciation for their time, some reasoning, next steps, etc. Yes, it does take a full 1 minute and 27 seconds to craft this communication. And, yes, that’s part of the gig. Be better.

We can’t call out candidate ghosting until we clean up our own shop. We stop ghosting, and now we can build Timmy’s Super Blockchain Candidates That Ghost Suck App! Where we track each ghosting and publicly shame candidates! It’s going to be amazing!

Seriously, in 2022 if you can’t clean up your Candidate Experience, you’re in trouble. It’s foundational to great recruiting, and it’s mostly an individual recruiter accountability issue. We get treated like we treat others. Go check out the 2022 Greenhouse Candidate Experience Report there is a ton of great data to support your strategy to become a much better TA shop this year!