Post-interview “Ghosting” and its Impact on Organizational Attractiveness

Note: I recently read an article in HuffPost US about “What It Means When You Hear Silence After A Job Interview”. I disagreed with the whole premise and really wanted to write a comment. But I was afraid to do it. Deep down I knew many people would agree with me, but I have found that whenever I have an opinion I often back down. I’m seeing more than ever that part of my “unfolding” experience is to be ok with how I feel and to express it.

So I wrote this – my first “business” perspective piece. I have been in the job market a few times over the course of my 20 years working and have experienced this “ghosting” more times than I care to acknowledge.  I don’t often get too riled up about things – I tend to see both sides to a story. But in this case, I don’t feel it’s acceptable for any organization to not get back to a candidate after an interview. It’s not good for the company and it’s not good for the candidate.

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Attraction is defined as the “action or power of evoking interest, pleasure, or liking for someone or something” – and it’s not to be underestimated in the employee lifecycle.

Employee lifecycles generally consist of six stages: Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding, Development, Retention, and Separation/Exit.

The initial Attraction stage is focused on what the potential candidate may see or hear about the organization. It’s the perception of the brand including the values of the organization, what it stands for and how it’s different from its competitors.

But having attraction is not only important prior to recruitment.  It’s important at all stages of the recruitment process, especially after an interview with a candidate.

It’s like that first date with someone. You want to put your best foot forward. You think about what you might talk about, what you may want to learn about them, and spend extra time picking out your outfit. The date appears successful – you seem to both enjoy the time you spend together. In fact, you had such an enjoyable time that you send them a short thank-you email later on that day. “I had a great time getting to know you and look forward to getting together again soon!”

It’s now a week later and you haven’t heard back. You email them to see how they are and to express that you’d like to meet again. 

Silence.

What happens after that “date” is just as important as what happens before or during it.

In the job market there are certain expectations of candidates.  On top of the list is that they come prepared for an interview, and perhaps that they send a brief thank-you to the people who interviewed them.

What are the expectations of an organization during the interview process?  Shouldn’t one of them be that they provide communications after an interview – delivering on a promise to get back to candidates in a timely and consistent manner?

There are missed opportunities for organizations that fail to recognize the importance of actions to enhance “post-date” attraction. Actions that happen after an interview that have the effect of increasing or diminishing the attraction that a potential candidate may have towards an organization. Like post-date “ghosting” and how it can impact the interest of the other party.

Recruiters spend significant resources, time and money attracting, identifying and selecting the right candidate. Likely they have best practices and processes in place focused on having an effective strategy for targeting their candidates. But what about when they leave the interview? There are companies that do not deliver consistent and timely communications after the interview process. The way in which this process is handled can tell a lot about an organization and can be perceived in a negative way by potential candidates.

According to Careerarc, if an organization does not communicate back to a job seeker, that job seeker is 3.5 times more likely not to re-apply for a different position, and more than 70 percent will share their bad experiences with their peers.

In another study by CareerBuilder, it was shown that an important part of the candidate experience journey is communication during the interview process. Approximately 80 percent of job seekers say updates on their application status would greatly improve their experience.

What’s also interesting is research conducted to examine how individuals’ values impact their occupational choices.  Vroom (1966) found that individuals made job choices consistent with their work goals, some of which were based on their values (e.g. chance to help people), suggesting that individuals make job decisions based, partly, on their work values. If a job seeker selects a company that has similar values to their own, and these values are questioned because of the actions of a company, then it’s not unreasonable to think they may question their choice in applying for a position. (Judge & Bretz)

Interviews can be a humbling and vulnerable experience. 

A person may have lost their job and there’s a lot riding on them to find another, or they’re just exploring new opportunities.  Either way, when they apply for a position their experience, personality, values, and intellect are on display. They have also taken time to prepare for the interview potentially taking time away from their family, current job or other commitments to explore a new opportunity for themselves. In fact, Careerarc says that candidates spend on average 3-4 hours preparing an application.

In the dating world it may have become the norm and expected not to hear back from people. Unfortunately, it seems to have become more common in our everyday actions with each other. From buying and selling on Kijiji where a potential buyer doesn’t show up to pick up your item to even just failing to call a friend back for weeks.

But should that be acceptable in the business world where competition is always heating up and organizations are under pressure to differentiate themselves from others?

It’s interesting (and even disheartening) to think that they could probably set themselves apart by engaging more (in what should be a natural interaction) with people after their interview – and in that process demonstrating to candidates that they walk the talk in the people department. If the candidate ends up getting the job it’s a good lead into the onboarding process.  If they don’t get the job chances are they still have a good impression of the company.

Communicating back to candidates doesn’t have to mean a long conversation or email.  At a minimum it can just be a template email that gives candidates an answer to the one question they have. 

Do they have the job – or not.  

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References:

Vroom, V. H. (1966). Organizational choice: A study of pre- and post decision processes. Organizational Behavior & Human Performance, 1(2), 212-225.

Judge, Timothy A., and Robert D. Bretz. “Effects of Work Values on Job Choice Decisions.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 77, no. 3, 1992, pp. 261–271., doi:10.1037//0021-9010.77.3.261.

23 Surprising Stats on Candidate Experience – Infographic. https://www.careerarc.com/blog/2016/06/candidate-experience-study-infographic/

Candidate Experience From End-to-End:What’s Your Weakest Link? https://screen.careerbuilder.com/difference/docs/2017-candidate-experience-guide.pdf