When looking for a partner online, many people experience that contact with the other person is cut off without warning. Now this phenomenon is spreading to the labor market. More and more companies are falling victim to ghosting when looking for new employees. What can you do about it? We asked HR advisor Bettina Kern.
Without warning, the other person stops responding or responds – this describes the phenomenon of ghosting, which is ubiquitous in the online dating world. But sudden loss of contact is also becoming more common in the working world.
“There has always been a bit of that, but there are more and more of them,” says HR consultant Bettina Kern, who and her team place IT specialists and technicians.
Where does ghosting occur? If candidates receive multiple calls after the interview, “they never reach out again,” Kern says. The fact that many things are more impersonal these days seems to fuel ghosting. In almost all cases, applicants and companies are only meeting virtually for the first time.
“Cancellation is a matter of decency”
“Anyone who has already had ten other conversations, several perhaps even on the same day, for whom the company is a number,” says Kern, who still has no understanding of the disappearance: “For me it is a matter of decency to reject someone .”
In addition, it often happens that employees who have agreed to work with a company do not take the job: “You often give notice during the notice period you have with your existing employer because the employer has increased your salary.”
Relationship work even before the first day of work
The phase between the ‘yes’ and the first working day is becoming increasingly important in the still competitive labor market: this requires relationship work from companies. “It could be a photo you send from your workplace or an invitation to meet the team – there are a thousand possibilities.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
