Recruiters: This is why candidates ignore you 

Job hunters admit to ‘Ghosting’ recruiters and reveal top five reasons 

Making its way into the list of 2015’s best words, ‘ghosting’ is often used in reference to a romantic relationship and refers to being dumped through a sudden cut-off of all communication. No longer just a trend limited to the dating world, latest research finds that 14% of candidates have ghosted a recruiter.

The news comes from CV-Library, which conducted a survey amongst over 3,000 of Britain’s workers to gain a better understanding of ghosting in the workplace. The findings revealed that when it comes to the working world, the trend appears to be most prolific during the recruitment process as over half (52.8%) of UK workers feel they have been ghosted by an employer during the interview process.

As workers feel they’re the ones who have been ghosted in the past, they’re not afraid to turn the tables as 14% admit to ghosting a recruiter; and they reveal the top five reasons they’d ignore a recruiter’s calls:

  1. They’re being sent irrelevant jobs – 24.8%
  2. They feel bullied into apply for roles they’re not interested in – 18.9%
  3. They sense the recruiter has a bad attitude – 15.7%
  4. They feel ignored by the recruiter – 12%
  5. They receive too many phone calls – 9%

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library comments:

“The recruitment process is tedious for both job hunters and employers, but that’s no excuse for either party to simply ignore the other. Having a qualified candidate simply stop responding to your calls and messages can be frustrating, but the findings show that a little bit more care and consideration for the candidate’s needs would solve the issue.

“However, it’s surprising to see so many recruiters are guilty of ghosting candidates and it’s critical that employers and agencies correct this behaviour. If a candidate is constantly ignored by recruiters, a signal is being sent to workers that the behaviour is acceptable and they’ll begin to mirror it in the workplace.”

And having experienced ghosting from recruiters, workers are increasingly ghosting their employers once they’ve secure a job – 8.9% of workers admit that they have quit a job by failing to show up, instead of handing in a formal notice.

This data further emphasises the importance of tackling the issue of ghosting in recruitment, as its effects are beginning to take hold in employment as well.

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The British Institute of Recruiters is the Professional Body operating The Recruitment Certification Scheme

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