How to Eliminate Recruiter Ghosting and Build Candidate Trust

Job candidates are not having a good time. In fact, according to recent research from our Marketplace and interview scheduling partner Cronofy, expected and actual wait times for the first interview are increasing—14% of candidates waited a month or more in 2024 compared to 5% in 2022!

This is a problem not just for your employer brand, but for employee experience and turnover. If your new hires don’t have a great experience with you as a candidate, it sets the tone for how they’ll experience your company as a new hire. And they won’t stick around for long if they’re not impressed (on average you have 44 days to win or lose a new hire as a long-term employee).

The first step in improving the candidate experience is understanding what they’re feeling and where they’re coming from, so you can leverage tools and best practices to strategically address each concern. Here’s what else Cronofy’s Candidate Expectations research report reveals about candidate psychology, ghosting, interview scheduling, and more.

Candidates Facing Longest Interview Scheduling Times on Record

When it comes to scheduling their first interview with a company, candidates expect to be kept waiting, and the reality bears out—both real and expected wait times are longer than they’ve been in recent years, with the number of interviews being scheduled two to three weeks after the application, doubling from 13% in 2022 to 31% in 2024.

Despite the tough current macroeconomic climate, 42% of candidates have moved on from prospective opportunities because it took too long to schedule an interview.

Over half of candidates say they prefer an automated system that provides time slots to choose from, rather than trying to find a suitable time through lengthy, back-and-forth email chains. Candidates also want their time to feel respected.

Read the full report: Candidate Expectations 2024

Long Interview Times Are Psychologically Damaging to Candidates

This waiting game has adverse effects on candidate stress, anxiety, and even self-confidence. “Lack of responsiveness and poor communication” was the top-cited reason for candidate frustration at 28%, indicating a need for better systems that automate scheduling and improve communication between candidates and hiring teams.

But candidates also shared other challenges, including:

• Long wait times for interviews
• Being ghosted by recruiters
• Too much bureaucracy

These have created a higher psychological burden than they’d experienced in the past.

The second most frustrating part of the interview process for 17% of candidates was a lack of transparency, indicating a need for a well-documented interview process with clear candidate instructions.

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For candidates who identify as neurodiverse, difficulties from inefficient interview processes are even worse. They reported far higher levels of stress at 56%, compared to the global population at 38%. A further 56% also report ‌having already dropped out of recruitment processes due to frustratingly long interview scheduling, 12% higher than the global average.

Increased Recruiter Workloads Leave Candidates Ghosted and Anxious

Candidates are getting increasingly jaded from ghosting, or the sudden stop in communication from recruiters. This lack of closure, combined with too little information about the interview process, timelines, and role details, can lead to significant drops in candidate trust and engagement.

This can spell trouble for your employer brand when poor hiring practices lead candidates to avoid your brand in the future and warn others about their experience (48% of candidates say they would be less likely to recommend your company or engage with it based on frustrating interview scheduling).

Candidate Experience Starts the Moment They’re Introduced to the Business, Not at the First Interview

What does this mean in practice? Candidates begin forming their perceptions of companies early on. For 62% of candidates, the time it took to schedule interviews, and their overall experience in the interview-scheduling process, forms early perceptions of employers that are later difficult to shift.

When faced with multiple offers, 70% of candidates appreciate a seamless recruitment process and often use it as a yardstick to choose the role they’ll say yes to.

What Can Recruiters Do to Create a Better Candidate Experience?

The top area candidates want to see more automation in is interview scheduling (at 37%). They also want to be treated like individuals; 61% feel that recruitment should focus more on the candidate as an individual rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Candidates expect companies to get to know them after they’ve put in the time to get to know the company. 41% say efficient hiring is a sign of respect for them as a person.

However, while candidates are keen to embrace automation, it can’t replace human connection. For 81% of candidates, having someone to contact during the recruitment process is still vital.

Talent acquisition teams are often burdened by time-consuming manual interview scheduling, which makes it harder for them to source the best candidates and communicate with them meaningfully. But smart automation streamlines the busywork so recruiters are free to deliver the human touch and personalization candidates want the most.