The Spanish labor market is facing a growing problem despite registering one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe: job ghosting, a practice in which job applicants abandon the selection process without prior notice or even, after being chosen for the position, they never get to occupy it. “We have come across candidates who no longer show up on the first day of work and disappear from the map without giving any kind of explanation,” they say from Adecco.
A type of informality that takes its toll on companies, especially those specialized in personnel selection. The sector asserts that the phenomenon has intensified in the last two years and that it occurs “very frequently”, which it attributes in large part to the drop in unemployment and the high demand for workers to fill certain positions in the hospitality industry. restoration, construction, commerce and tourism, although ghosting, they warn, occurs in a wide variety of job offers.
The problem does not lie in the fact that candidates have several job offers on the table and can choose, but in the fact, as Sara Nogales, head of Nexian’s personnel selection area, points out, that “they don’t even pick up the phone, they block or do not answer the messages”. The human resources expert quantifies 10% of the candidates who do ghosting and 40% of those who end up rejecting the offers “in an appropriate way”, that is, informing that they will not continue with the process.
“For positions with some responsibility, the phenomenon is null or insignificant. It is in processes in which lower profiles and junior professionals are sought that it can easily reach 25% of the candidates”, explains Lluis Jiménez, president of the Association of Search and Selection Companies (AEBYS). To reduce the impact that this trend may have on your business, recruitment and talent search agencies focus on the loyalty of candidates, for example, through the organization of events in which ideas and strategies are exchanged. to ensure that the candidates remain until the end of the processes.
In this sense, Jiménez maintains that the effect of ghosting “is very negative” because it has an impact “on the image” of the recruitment company and because of the economic cost that “keep looking when you thought you had already found the candidate” implies, since the processes are lengthened and the profitability falls”. However, he admits that the phenomenon is more affected “the more precarious the workplace.”
Another collateral effect of suffering a sit-in by a job applicant is “the overload” that this can entail for the rest of the team and which, as Isabel Barceló, director of direct recruitment at Adecco Catalunya, points out, “can lead to more turnover personnel” in a company. “There are many hidden costs that ghosting causes,” she adds.
Leaving a company stranded in a job interview or being absent from the first day of work are more common practices among the millennial and Z generations. Workers, argues Barceló, who “want to work in something that they are passionate about, that they like and that they enjoy doing it”. Salary is also an important aspect, although it is not the main reason for giving up a job.
According to a survey carried out by the human resources company Nexian, the main trigger for 34% of those surveyed is business reputation, that is, the good and bad references that other workers can give about the company; 26% abandon the process because they do not meet their salary expectations, while 26% do so due to the delay with which the organization informs applicants about the process, and 14% due to a lack of empathy with the interviewer.
“In generations like mine it was unthinkable not to answer or not to go to a job interview,” says human resources specialist Pilar Llácer. The author of the book Why human resources should be like Netflix explains that today there are candidates who “if they see that they are not interested in the conditions or are participating in several selection processes at the same time, they do not go to the interview directly.” “It has also happened to us that companies call us because they have not shown up on the first day of work,” she adds.
This also happens because, for certain positions and professional profiles, “the ball is in the field of the candidate, who is the one who chooses the company,” he qualifies. However, she warns that ghosting can also take its toll on those who practice it sooner or later. “Life takes many turns and it is not profitable to look bad with people and companies.”
However, recruitment agencies and companies are not the only ones to suffer the consequences of labor ‘ghosting’, since it is a two-way phenomenon, that is, as Llácer points out, “there are many companies that never inform candidates whether or not they continue in the selection process, despite the fact that, with new technologies, it is very easy to keep them informed”. In fact, according to Barceló, the lack of feedback is a factor that contributes to job applicants ending up resigning. “They think they’re out and drop out,” he says.
The new technologies are in this sense a double-edged sword. “When you automate and digitize processes, the personal relationship with the candidates is somewhat lost; it seems that there is no need to respond or inform,” argues Jiménez.
Apart from improving communication with candidates, it is recommended that companies value their social benefits and their project during the selection processes. “The challenge of human resources is to win over and engage candidates. If a company does not have an attractive job offer – project and other indicators, such as salary and leadership style – it will be uncompetitive; candidates will find but the best talent will not take it away”, concludes Llácer.
