The Recruitment Black Hole

If there is one thing I have noticed during my time in the job market, it is how much recruitment seems to have changed, and not necessarily for the better.

I have now been searching for my next HR opportunity for several months. I have tailored CVs, written applications, researched organisations, prepared for interviews and spent countless hours trying to demonstrate why I would be a good fit for a role and sometimes, you hear nothing.

No rejection.

No update.

No acknowledgement.

Just silence.

Welcome to ghosting.

Ghosting has become increasingly normalised within recruitment. Candidates can spend hours applying for a role, only to receive absolutely no communication afterwards. Even when someone has progressed through multiple stages of a recruitment process, communication can suddenly disappear. I think we need to talk about why that matters.

Recruitment is a two-way street

It is easy to forget that recruitment isn't simply an organisation choosing an employee.

The candidate is choosing an organisation too.

When I apply for a job, I am not just asking, "Will you employ me?"

I am also asking:

• What kind of organisation are you?

• How do you treat your people?

• How do you communicate?

• What is the culture like?

• Would I actually want to work here?

And recruitment is often the first opportunity an organisation has to demonstrate those things.

If an organisation talks about communication, respect and putting people first, but then leaves candidates waiting weeks without an update, there is already a disconnect between what the organisation says and what it does.

The candidate is experiencing your organisation before they ever become an employee.

Your rejection is still part of your employer brand

Not every candidate can get the job. That's just reality. There will always be more applicants than positions, and sometimes someone else will simply be a better fit. Candidates understand that. What they don't necessarily understand is being left wondering whether their application was ever read. A rejection doesn't have to be a negative experience. A timely, respectful message saying:

"Thank you for taking the time to apply. Unfortunately, on this occasion, we have decided to progress with other candidates."

is infinitely better than silence. And if someone has reached interview stage, I think that communication becomes even more important. They have invested their time in you. They have prepared. They have probably rearranged their working day, travelled to your office, researched your organisation and spent time thinking about how they could contribute.

That deserves a response. Even if the answer is no.

HR has a particularly important role to play

As HR professionals, we spend a lot of time talking about employee experience. But candidate experience is part of that journey too. The employee experience doesn't magically begin on their first day. It starts when they first encounter your organisation.

• The job advert.

• The application process.

• The emails they receive.

• The interview.

• The communication afterwards.

• The offer.

• The onboarding.

Every interaction tells a candidate something about your organisation. In an age where people can share their experiences publicly, organisations should be thinking carefully about what those interactions say. Because candidates remember how you made them feel and the person you reject today could be a customer tomorrow. They could recommend you to someone else or could apply again in five years or they could become the person you desperately want to hire further down the line.

I know recruitment is difficult

I don't want this to become a "HR is terrible and candidates are victims" post. Recruitment teams are under enormous pressure too. Vacancies can change. Hiring managers can take days or weeks to make decisions. Budgets can disappear. Internal candidates can emerge. Recruitment processes can be paused or cancelled. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why recruitment doesn't always move quickly. But communication doesn't necessarily require a decision. Sometimes, all a candidate needs is:

"We're still reviewing applications and expect to have an update next week."

That's it.

It takes very little time, but it demonstrates that there is a human being on the other side of the application.

The response you give is a reflection of your organisation

This is perhaps the biggest thing I have taken away from my own experience in the job market. The way you treat candidates tells them something about your organisation. You don't have to employ someone to treat them with respect. You don't have to offer someone a job to communicate well. And you certainly don't have to apologise for choosing another candidate. But you can acknowledge the time, effort and interest that someone has invested in your organisation.

Recruitment is a two-way street.

Yes, candidates are trying to impress employers but employers are also trying to attract the right people and if we want talented people to choose our organisations, we need to give them a reason to want to work for us. Good candidate experience isn't about giving everyone a job. It's about making sure that everyone who interacts with your organisation leaves with a fair impression of who you are.

Because even when the answer is no, how you deliver that answer matters.

Over to you

I'm interested to hear how other HR professionals and hiring managers approach this.

• What does your recruitment process look like?

• Do you acknowledge every application, or only those who progress to the next stage?

• How quickly do you aim to respond to candidates?

• Do you communicate with candidates when there are delays to the recruitment process?

• Do you provide feedback following interviews?

And perhaps most importantly - what do you think good candidate communication looks like?

I'd love to hear what organisations are doing well, what challenges you face, and whether you think candidate ghosting has become an unavoidable part of modern recruitment, or something we should be actively trying to change.

Because recruitment might be about finding the right person for the organisation, but the experience should work both ways.

What are your current recruitment practices?