Use These 2 Powerful Strategies to Go From Getting Ghosted to Hiring All-Star Talent

Your hiring needs are at a 10 on the scale of needing to hire employees. You’ve posted ads and hung the now hiring sign and searched for job fairs in your area of the world. 

You’ve seemingly done everything to find people and FINALLY you have booked a few interviews with candidates that make you feel a bit of hope. 

Candidate #1 shows up for their interview and you aren’t thrilled. 

After interviewing candidate #2 you believe they are a potential hire. 

But it’s candidate #3 that excites you most. They are scheduled for a 10:00am interview time. 

10:00 comes and goes.

10:10.

10:15.

10:30.

Once again. You’ve been ghosted. By the candidate you believed in most. 

After hiring a few other candidates to fill out your team, you schedule each of them for a training and onboarding session. For the first time in over a year your team is full and you can begin to set things up in a more normal pattern and schedule. 

Onboarding day arrives and two of the new hires don’t show. You move on with onboarding and training but internally you’re frustrated. Even to the point of anger. 

Ghosting. According to recent articles such as this article by Alison Green in Slate magazine (https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/10/job-seeking-advice-hiring-trend-tight-economy.html)- ghosting seems to be a rising trend within recruiting and hiring. Candidates committing to an interview or even starting a job only to not show when the day arrives. Regardless of their reasoning- changing their mind, selecting a different opportunity, re-thinking their decision- ghosting seems to be more prevalent today than ever before. And it is taking its toll on business leaders who are trying to shift in a forever changed marketplace with ever changing expectations from both employees and clientele. 

This is a new day in the world. It is especially a new day in the workplace. 

But it is in moments of radical change that leadership matters most. And it is in those moments of radical change that leaders must be learning, listening, growing, evolving, and responding in a way that is innovative. This is critically important when it comes to building your team. 

You need great people around you. That is obvious. What you may not understand is how to find those great people. You have lived the script that opened this article, been passed on, ghosted, and frustrated by your current hiring strategies. 

Let’s be honest- those strategies aren’t working. It’s time to learn something new. 

Can you eradicate this trend of ghosting completely? No. This behavior has been around for as long as humans have existed. In one way or another, people have moments when they don’t show. It’s a fact of life. Your goal is to not eradicate a human behavior but rather learn to navigate said human behavior. 

Let’s explore 2 strategies you can begin using today that will proactively increase your odds of removing the trend of ghosting from your hiring life. 

Strategy 1- Use lifestyle recruiting as your foundational form of recruiting. 

As with anything in life, you need options. You need a variety of tools in your leadership toolbox that can be used at any given time. But in any great toolbox, you have your foundational tools that you go to on a daily basis. Lifestyle recruiting is your new foundational, daily go to when it comes to building your all-star team. 

While learning the art of lifestyle recruiting takes repetition, practice, and time, it is a very simple strategy that will change the game when it comes to recruiting. 

In its most simple form- this is how lifestyle recruiting works:

In your everyday life, you are always recruiting. When a worker at the grocery store is friendly or goes out of their way to help, you recruit them by saying ‘thank you for your time and help! I am always looking for great people so if you know anyone who has similar work ethic and friendliness as you, please send them my way.’ If you want to be more direct and recruit them in the moment, simply say- ‘I am always looking for great people! If you’re ever seeking a new opportunity, come see me.’ 

You replicate this simple action everywhere-

That coffee shop barista you love- recruit her. 

That customer service rep at the tire shop- recruit him. 

That insurance agent who helped you when your car was stolen- recruit them. 

When you open your eyes to lifestyle recruiting, you raise your awareness as to how many amazing people are walking this earth! And they all want the same thing- to go to a place of work where they feel empowered, appreciated, and purposeful. If you have set up a culture of those three elements, you should recruit people all day, everyday, knowing you can give them an opportunity they currently may not have. 

Lifestyle recruiting remedies the trend of ghosting for a few reasons. 

First, when you experience someone in their place of work, you are engaging them on a level not otherwise replicable. They gave you an experience you cherish and can show appreciation for. They have proven to you their work ethic and ability through the service given. You have shown them sincere appreciation, thus earning their trust. 

Most importantly, you’ve put skin on an experience they will see again. You stop at that coffee shop twice a week. If that person you recruit ghosts you, they know they will see you again. That is embarrassing to say the least. The challenge with third party apps and third party interview appointments is the candidate has zero skin in the game. They have nothing to lose if they ghost you. But when you recruit them personally, they have much to lose- mainly their pride. 

Humans don’t like to feel embarrassed. When you recruit someone personally you both now have an accountability to show up. That matters. And it’s the best way to lower the risk of candidates ghosting you. 

Strategy 2- Build a rolodex of candidates.

The real reason leaders hate being ghosted isn’t in the reality of a no-show. The real reason they hate being ghosted is because they aren’t prepared. 

If you have a rolodex of candidates at your disposal, one candidate ghosting you is no big deal. In fact, when you have a large pool of candidates built up for your referral, you enjoy being ghosted because the candidate now showed you something BEFORE you made the mistake of hiring them! This ghosting saves you time and a ton of money. Better they ghost you now than later. 

Building a rolodex of candidates is built on the back of lifestyle recruiting. As you daily recruit new candidates you meet, you are keeping track of each interaction and response. This becomes your rolodex. Can you hire everyone you recruit? No. But you can always be recruiting potential candidates that fill your file for future reference. 

This strategy allows you to prioritize your toolbox and reduce stress when someone doesn't show. The effort of constantly building your rolodex of candidates will allow you to be grateful for the moments you are ghosted and give you the opportunity to take your recruiting and hiring into your own hands. 

Hiring is risky, often at best. Your role is to mitigate as many risks as possible. The best way to do that is to recruit the majority of your team personally, and train your best performers and leaders to do the same. Lifestyle recruiting is your answer to ghosting. Because when there is skin in the game, an investment in interest of a job, most often than not- people show.