3 Steps to Eliminate Candidate Ghosting
Posted Tuesday, January 1st, 2019

3 Steps to Eliminate Candidate Ghosting

As 2019 begins, it would be ideal to think that Candidate Ghosting will be left behind with the last year.

Alas, young grasshopper, for it would only be a dream.

The term Candidate Ghosting simply means that candidates who have somehow expressed interest in a job have disappeared without any explanation. In some cases, the candidate was offered and accepted a new job but never showed up. This phenomenon rose to prominence in 2018. Here it is discussed in USA Today. 

Candidate Ghosting is a validation that today’s hiring process is broken and changes are needed.

Some of the blame has been attributed to the very low unemployment rate and the perception that candidates may be receiving multiple offers. Some of the blame has been attributed to those crazy millennials who get blamed for both a good and bad economy and everything in between.

There may be some truth to either of the blame game theories. However, the responsibility to implement best practices hiring is with the business leadership of the organizations that are hiring.

In spite of our title “3 Steps to Eliminating Candidate Ghosting”, there is no guaranteed formula that will 100% eliminate this.  Why, because Candidate Ghosting involves the most complicated and the most complex aspect of all business…which is the people who work for your business and the people who you want to work for your business. 

The People Aspect is exactly the point of this column. What can be done to significantly lessen the frequency of Candidate Ghosting?


Step 1 to reduce Candidate Ghosting

This may be the hardest step, but it is also the simplest. It requires the employer to view hiring as being different than any other thing their business does. Hiring must be separated outside of commodity acquisitions.  Everything a business buys or sells has the component of being a commodity. Hiring people is not a commodity experience. No future employee wants to be thought of as a widget or a unit or “human capital”.   


Step 2 to reduce Candidate Ghosting

Understand your company’s hiring process from the candidate’s perspective. Why would a talented individual want to work for your organization? What is in it for them? Have you, the business leader, CEO, or hiring manager audited your hiring process recently to really understand what the candidate experience feels like? Do you ask candidate’s for their comments about your company’s hiring process?

Businesses frequently post on their website statements describing how important their people are. Then, they automate their hiring process with robots. Robots can do a lot for businesses today. But using robots for hiring says the hiring process has been developed to hire with the most amount of shortcuts and the least amount of  human interaction.


Step 3 to reduce Candidate Ghosting

Remember that your company is adding people to work with the existing members of your organization to ideally deliver a higher collective group output than the theoretical sum of the individual’s output. 

Simply put, it has been proven that chemistry and cultural fit are critical to hiring great talent. As the employer, what are you doing to personally connect with qualified candidates? How are you making them feel involved in the process of joining your organization? Are you asking for their questions? Are you having them meet with several members of your organization? Is the hiring manager (the candidate’s future boss) taking an active role to connect with the candidates?



All of us are trying to find a better, faster way to conduct business. Technology has delivered terrific tools. But, they are merely tools. Unlike everything else in business, people have feelings and emotions as part of their complex make-up. If qualified candidates don’t feel there has been any type of connection during their hiring discussion, then it shouldn’t be a surprise when they evaporate.

Successful hiring requires a process and the dedication to give the necessary time to make the personal connection with qualified candidates. 

Good hunting in 2019