How to use recruitment technology to avoid ghosting candidates

Nobody wants to be ghosted. Not only is it unethical, unkind and unnecessary but it can leave a very sour taste in a candidate’s mouth. Ghosting a candidate during the recruitment process could not only cause distress to the candidate, it could damage your brand.

In recent research undertaken by Tribepad of 2,000 adults, 65% said they had been ghosted and 94% of those said the experience left them with negative feelings towards the company. In a market where candidates hold the strings and social platforms make it easy to voice dissatisfaction (there are numerous accounts of such posts going viral, especially during the pandemic), candidate ghosting should never happen.

Ghosting candidates is rarely intentional and in a busy recruitment agency it can be understandably hard to respond to every applicant and keep them updated during the process, but this is where recruitment technology can help.

  1. Keep track of candidate statuses

    Whether you have two applications or 102, tech that funnels all applications onto a single platform, allowing you to keep track of each one in one place, is invaluable. A traffic light system that allows you to quickly rank candidates according to their status in the process enables you to quickly see which candidates are advancing to the next stage and which need to be informed that their application hasn’t been successful. In WaveTrackR’s candidate management system, for example, a click on red means unsuccessful, amber means final stage and green means hired. You can also choose how to order candidates according to their statuses by simply clicking a box.

  2. Make notes within your CRM

    A notes feature which allows you to makes notes directly next to a candidate’s application means you can keep up to date with changing information. Updating notes after every call or interview will mean the information is thorough and kept in one place. That means you’ll have detailed notes and records of past emails and calls every time you communicate with a candidate, helping them to feel valued and remembered rather than just a cog in the machine.

  3. Set up automated emails

    The ability to quickly and easily email a candidate is essential to ensure a seamless communication flow. Tech that offers email templates, bulk messaging and automations is therefore incredibly helpful to ensure no candidate is ghosted. A personal email with feedback is best (and can also be set up within most candidate management systems) but any email is better than none. The very worst you could do is leave a candidate hanging, not knowing where they are in the process or if their application has even been received. Communication sent at each stage of the process – from application confirmation all the way to hire – is vital to help candidates feel at ease and to prevent them from going elsewhere. You may not mean to ghost a candidate.

  4. Create a candidate pool

    A candidate may not be quite the right fit for the job they have applied for but perfect for other opportunities. Maintaining a positive relationship will allow you to stay in touch with that candidate until the right job does come up. Their CV can be retained on your tech so that you can build your own internal pool of talented candidates and then easily find them with a CV Search tool.

  5. Utilise AI to focus on human recruiting

    Recruitment tech has revolutionised the industry, streamlining processes and enabling a shorter time to hire. AI can be utilised to perform the time-consuming tasks that take recruiters away from the human element of recruitment. Used well, recruitment tech should help to track candidates during the process, communicate quickly with them, and reduce time on admin, thereby freeing up valuable time to talk to those candidates. Ultimately, recruiters need to have a compassionate approach to recruitment. Recognising that behind every application is a person trying to find a job and that each of those people is different, with varying backgrounds, histories, motivations, wins and woes, is crucial. The combination of streamlining, data-driven tech with the compassionate, relationship-building power of a human recruiter makes for a winning formula.

Keeping track of all your candidates is a crucial part of any successful recruitment strategy, ensuring a positive candidate experience and maintaining positive branding. Letting candidates know they haven’t been successful can be hard but it’s vital to communicate that with them so that they can move on. All recruiters have their eyes on a hire but the steps leading to that stage are equally important.

Your hiring process is a reflection of your brand and ghosting can severely damage that. Communication, building and nurturing those relationships, is key to retaining candidate trust and recruitment technology can aid in the practicalities of that in a busy recruitment agency.

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