Editor’s note: This article was originally published on August 17, 2018.
Chandra Kill has scheduled in-person interviews with 21 candidates to fill some vacancies at her employment screening company. Only 11 people showed up.
“About half were eliminated,” Keel said. “They look really excited and interested and then they don’t show up or call and you just wonder what’s going on. This was not the case a year or two ago. ”
Executive introduction
With U.S. unemployment at an 18-year low and job openings outpacing the number of people looking for work, Candidates are abandoning scheduled interviews. In some cases, new employees won’t show up for their first day on the job.
“We’re in a unique situation where supply and demand have definitely changed in the employment world,” said Susie Willingham, director of talent acquisition at healthcare company CareHere.
“We are all fishing in the same pond and people now have options and opportunities to really explore different positions, roles and pay levels. With options like that, people change their minds mid-stream – which can be very frustrating .”
She estimates that about one in 10 candidates does not show up for interviews, with absences being more common in lower-level positions.
Being asked to attend an on-site interview At Kill’s company, candidates must go through an hour-long online assessment and a 15-minute phone interview. So by the time they are invited into the office for an interview, they have already come a long way in the process.
While there’s nothing wrong with accepting another job offer, abandoning an employer without notice can have lasting effects.
“It’s a small world,” said Johnny Taylor, president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management. Even if you don’t think you want to work at the company, hiring managers will be around. “You’re compromising yourself. You don’t know how this is going to hurt you later.”
He added that he heard of one candidate who flew out for a job interview, only to skip that part of the trip.
“I hope that if I send you a plane ticket and give you two hours to meet with you, you’ll show up.” As a result, he said, some companies require candidates to agree to reimburse travel expenses if they attend the trip but fail during the interview. Poor performance.
To curb this problem, recruiters have been changing strategies and speeding up the hiring process. If they have a qualified candidate who looks like a good fit, they will work to get them in for an interview the next day.
To be fair, either One party to the recruitment process may disappear without a word. Recruiters may also be unable to follow up with candidates after initial contact or interviews, especially during times of high unemployment.
“We all need to respect people’s time,” Willingham said. “We need to keep both lines of communication open and be honest with each other. Today may not be the right opportunity, but there’s no reason to burn a bridge.”