Reducing candidate ghosting or joining no shows through employee referrals

Poof! Gone! He/She is not picking up my calls any more. Aunt, Uncle, Mother are in the hospital. Or god forbid, in the mortuary.

 Joining no shows or candidate ghosting is a phenomenon in which candidates accept your offer and on the day of joining, they vanish. Poof. Gone. The candidate was interested and excited the previous week when you spoke. Today, on the day of joining, no luck though. They did not show up.

Recruiters are back at square one trying to initiate the process of hiring again. Hiring managers are livid and in the worst case scenario, blame recruiters and lose trust in their ability to connect with good candidates. To prevent and reduce candidates no shows or joining no shows it is important to take a step back and look at the reasons for the same.

We are living in a candidate driven market. Skilled candidates today are sought after. They have multiple offers and there are organisations which are willing to give them a raise on top of the raise they have received in the previous offer. So, it's not uncommon to see candidates getting 30-40 percent increment. This makes them incredibly tempted to take up another offer. How then do you prevent this problem? Throwing infinite amounts of money is never a solution nor a viable one too.

Here are a couple of reasons why a candidate ghosts

1) They are unprofessional. There is no etiquette built in neither is there coaching on how to deal with job changes. Nor do companies or our education system train candidates on how to exit an organisation let alone enter a new one well.

2) Candidates are inherently good at heart and don’t know how to share bad news. So, it seems easier to vanish than reason. Time and again our education systems have failed in teaching us to be transparent while setting up expectations.

Regardless of these reasons, recruiters are typically disappointed and annoyed when the candidate does not show up. The least they expect is a call or a message from the candidate on no shows. And, the sooner they are notified by the candidate, the better.

Avoiding such situation is easier through the employee referral channel. Because, the employee acts as a friend and confidante to the candidate. If you leverage the employee throughout the entire hiring process, there is a very solid chance that the candidate will invest time in letting you know of their motives. They may not quote the real reason for rejecting your offer but will make sure you are at least aware of their decisions. And, in the hiring game, timing is everything. Knowing bad news 30 days before is invaluable and lets you make better plans.

Through our referral platform, we have seen joining no-shows decreasing to as low as 1-3 percent and offer to joining ratios improving by 10-12 percent. This makes it clear that in addition to a good referral program it is highly important rather critical that you keep your employees informed and engaged throughout the referral process to avoid any subsequent challenges.

As part of a good employee referral program, it is critical that you keep your employees informed and engaged throughout the hiring process. This helps avoid any subsequent challenges especially around no-shows.

Having shared out thoughts would really love to hear your experiences or measures taken to combat candidate ghosting.