End ghosting in recruitment: Technology means there’s no excuse

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Despite advances in software, many candidates are still ghosted by prospective employers. Martin Stubbs, resourcing manager at civil engineering firm Colas, explains the damage caused by organisations that fail to inform candidates why they haven’t got the job.
With single-click applications, the recruitment world has become unrecognisable in the past few years. Gone are the personal covering letters and hours spent adapting CVs to a role. It’s no wonder that many recruiters are seeing an influx of applicants, often unqualified for the position.
For big in-house talent teams, the technology is so good now that there is no room for excuses when it comes to failing to respond to candidates. Nevertheless, recent research from recruitment software firm Tribepad shows that 65% of UK job applicants have been ghosted. This points to a failure within recruitment and HR to act, both on a human level and on a technological level.
Technology is very accessible now and it is here to help us with automated screening and mass messaging to candidates. I see no reason for those who work in HR to apologise for using such automation.
The modern world has changed. We as an industry need to start treating people how we ourselves would wish to be treated. It really isn’t hard to set up an automated email system that allows organisations to communicate to a candidate that they have been unsuccessful – it is the bare minimum we can do.

Where talent team numbers allow, more personal feedback