Becoming Ghostbusters

Over the past few years, candidates ghosting an organization during the hiring process has become a regular thing. This is frustrating for organizations, as the talent acquisition process is time consuming with eager hiring managers providing plenty of additional "motivation." Organizations have been ghosting candidates since the beginning of time, but that's a post for another day.

Once we have decided that a candidate should advance in our hiring process, we have to begin making the process special for them. When we make the process special, we reduce the chance that the candidate will ghost us. Making the process special means treating them as an individual, reminding them at every turn that they are advancing in our process because they have the potential to add something special to our organization, something that is unique to them.

Once a candidate accepts our offer, we need to keep making them feel special. Between the time the candidate accepts our offer and their first day of work, we should be in constant contact with them, helping them to reaffirm their decision and preventing them from turning into Casper. Personalized welcome videos from leaders or peers are huge. Don't wait for them to arrive on their first day to get company branded swag, send it to their home. Send them a detailed schedule of their first two weeks so they know you are committed to providing them an amazing work experience.

The first day working at a new organization feels like the first day of middle school. We hope we don't dress funny, we hope we find kids to sit with at lunch, and we hope the other kids don't think we're weird. Zero percent of this changes when we become adults. And just like middle schoolers, sometimes we make the decision to transfer early. Our organizations have to immerse the new employee in our culture immediately so they can feel like they're one of us. Take the time to have them meet everyone. Give them detailed tours of every part of the operation. Make sure they clearly understand how their work is vital to the organization achieving its mission. Only then can you feel like you've done everything you can to avoid getting ghosted. Congratulations, you're now a ghostbuster.