The Double Standard in Employer & Candidate Experience
Would you ignore client calls or emails for weeks? Of course not. Yet in 2025, 61% of Canadian candidates reported being ghosted after interviews—up 9% from 2024. Nearly 80% of hiring managers admit to ghosting candidates, and almost 40% of candidates now ghost employers in return.
Ghosting Is a Symptom, Not the Disease
Ghosting reveals deeper issues: inconsistent communication, lack of transparency, and a broken candidate experience that erodes the employer brand and ROI.
Most organizations don’t intend to leave candidates hanging, but the impact is the same. We respond quickly to customers but make candidates wait weeks, often with zero closure. High application volume and limited resources are real, but customer service juggles similar demands and still manages timely replies. With basic tools, any employer can automate updates and closure messages. Respecting a candidate’s time shouldn’t be optional.
The Law of Reciprocity Isn’t Optional
People mirror what they experience. When organizations ghost candidates or treat them as disposable, candidates reciprocate by disengaging, ghosting back, or sharing their experience publicly. The more transactional hiring becomes, the more transactional your labour market gets.
Candidate experience isn’t just about interviews. It starts at the job ad, continues through every message and every bit of feedback (or lack thereof), and ends, not when you make a hire, but when you offer closure to every applicant.
Why Not Treat Candidates Like Customers?
Ghosting is more than bad manners. It’s bad business. Consider the numbers:
- · Strong employer brands reduce cost-per-hire by 43% and turnover by 28%.
- Positive candidate experiences lift offer acceptance rates by 38% and improve the quality of hire by up to 70%.
- Early retention triples where feedback, transparency, and real closure are built into the hiring process.
Break the Ghosting Habit
- Take your candidate experience for a spin; if it’s crickets, fix it.
- Use automated updates and clear closure.
- Measure candidate satisfaction and response data, just like you do with customers.
Every touchpoint shapes your employer brand, competitive edge, and future hiring power. The research is clear, the risks are public, and the fixes are scalable.
You wouldn’t ghost a client. Don’t ghost a candidate. People remember how they’re treated – and so does your market.