Don’t Ghost Me
Halloween is around the corner. Decorations are up and candy is out to please the sweet tooth. Getting into the Halloween spirit, I wanted to talk about ghosts and particularly about the term “ghosting”.
“Ghosting” has become something that we often hear about in conversations about dating. It describes the behavior of not getting a response from someone you have been interacting with, without having a proper farewell or closing to the exchange. The behavior of “ghosting” has always existed. Before, we just talked about it more factually saying that someone did not call/texted back. Something has changed to create the need of having a term to describe it. Technology made it easier to track historical conversations on different platforms. The amount of interactions we can have simultaneously is much larger. With that information availability the expectation to hear back has increased at the same pace as the amount of opportunities to be “ghosted”.
“Ghosting” also happens in a professional context. It’s unfortunately common to be ghosted during a sales exchange or a recruitment process. Focusing on the hiring use case, I have been in Talent Operations for quite a while and played all of the roles in hiring multiple times over. Here is my perspective and advice on the topic for everyone involved:
Hiring Managers: Ask your Talent Acquisition team how to better partner on it. For volume hiring you might be able to play a more active role in sorting through applications which will increase calibration amongst the team and provide insights on channel strategy and talent availability. For more niche roles, you will be more valuable scouting potential talent and actively engaging in conversation with candidates to explain the ins and outs of the opportunity. Make the time to meet with your Talent Acquisition team regularly to review application data, sourcing strategies and quality of candidates. Be as demanding with yourself to bring qualified applicants to the table and get back to candidates as you are with your Recruiter. Adjust your needs and expectations to the market reality. Know where you can compromise requirements and complement your team best with additional skill sets. Identify where to invest in development gaps for potential hires instead of looking for the perfect match. Keep all your panelists that will interview and yourself accountable for providing excellent treatment to every person you are in touch with.
Recruiters and Sourcers: Stay on top of inbound volumes and hiring channels, monitor ROI for each one and engage hiring teams along the way. Don’t invest time to put together custom reports or justify your every hour. Be clear about what data is readily available and valuable to share, make sure that it always drives to action and review it often with your hiring manager. Set expectations around the partnership upfront and what role each of the hiring team members will play. If there’s way too many applicants for a job, unpost it until you get through the batch of candidates. You can always repost it if you need more. This way you increase the chances of providing a better candidate experience by getting to everyone that applied and get more control over your pipeline.
Talent Acquisition and business Leadership: Make candidate experience and keep on top of stale applicants, KPIs as important as the number of hires. Consider volume and labor market dynamics to determine the right number of requisitions per recruiter and uphold reasonable standards. Don’t let missteps like ghosting candidates, not showing up or canceling interviews slip. Get into each case to learn what happened and course correct as needed.
Talent Acquisition Operations: Automation and Technology can help manage inbound applications and communications easier. Understand what levers are available and what makes sense for your organization. Start with driving the right behaviors in your Applicant Tracking System and figure out what configuration setups and available data can help. Automated caps and emails are good ones to start with before investing in optimizing channel efficiency with a CRM and more advanced AI capabilities.
Candidates: Be realistic with your expectations and understand that offer and demand for the roles you are applying for will have an impact on your experience. The amount of time, dedication and effort that you put into an exchange should be accounted for. If you have sent hundreds of applications through online portals with a generic Linkedin profile that took you minutes, don’t be mad for not getting an answer or just getting an automated response. Opposite story when you have invested time and effort in meeting people, opening up and sharing your personal and professional story. Have empathy for coordination misses and provide constructive feedback when things are not going the way you expect it. Ultimately, any Recruitment process is a two way evaluation so use the signals you are gathering through the process to see if the company and team you are applying for is right for you.
I hope that the above pointers help and there’s less ghosting and more sweet experiences in Recruiting for everyone involved. What’s been your most memorable hiring experience?