How to Use AI to Prevent Candidate Ghosting

As an employer, you’ve likely experienced candidate ghosting before. Maybe you’ve been in contact with a candidate you’re eager to hire and think things are going well, but then you stop hearing from them. No explanation as to why – the candidate just stops communicating, and you’re left wondering what went wrong. It’s not a good feeling to be stood up by someone you spent so much time interviewing, but it unfortunately happens. According to iHire’s 2024 State of Online Recruiting Report, 51% of employers said ghosting/unresponsive candidates is one of their biggest challenges when hiring through a job board or recruiting platform.

So, what causes candidate ghosting, and how can you prevent it?

Causes of Candidate Ghosting

Sometimes candidate ghosting just boils down to competition – maybe the job seeker accepted an employment offer from another company, which could come down to a higher salary or better benefits. But there are other reasons that candidate ghosting happens, too, including: 

• Confusion about the role 
• Lack of clarity from the company
• Bad or lengthy interview experience 
• Complicated hiring process 
• Misrepresented salary or benefits
• Lack of communication from the company, such as waiting too long to respond to applications
• No human connection 

5 Ways to Use AI to Avoid Candidate Ghosting

Now that you understand why candidates might ghost you, what can you do to overcome these hurdles? You can put artificial intelligence (AI) to work for you in your hiring practices! You might think this sounds counterproductive, especially given that candidates may want more human connection, but you can still use AI for hiring as long as you’re smart about it. Let’s discuss a few ways you can use AI in HR to prevent job ghosting. 

1. Write Strong Job Postings With AI

The first step in using AI to avoid candidate ghosting is to have a strong, well-written, and clear job posting. A job posting that lacks depth and vital information can be enough to send even the most well-suited candidates running. It’s even worse if they come to an interview with questions not answered in the job posting, only to have the hiring manager ignore their questions or unsure of how to answer them. At the same time, it can be a tedious process to write a job posting from scratch. Knowing what to include can be stressful. That’s where AI comes in. 

When you feed AI the right prompts, you’ll get a great job ad you can be proud of. Of course, don’t expect to just use what AI gives you back. You’ll need to humanize your job listing so that it’s not flagged as AI content. Plus, you still want your potential candidates to see you’re human and not a robot, so make sure that you look over whatever job description AI comes up with and edit it to feel human. 

2. Use AI to Write Emails to Stay in Touch

Your candidates want to know that you care and that you’re not ghosting them. The hiring process can be a long road paved with several interviews. During this time, it’s important that you keep in touch and let your potential employees know where they stand. Of course, you’ve likely received hundreds if not thousands of applications, and having to stay in touch with every likely candidate can be a bit much. So, automate these emails with AI. 

There are quite a few email automation tools to choose from. Select the one that best suits your needs as a hiring manager. Do you want to automatically generate recruitment emails? Or maybe you want an easier way to personalize follow-up emails? There’s definitely an AI tool that can help. 

3. Schedule and Confirm Interviews With AI

You can automate a lot more than just back-and-forth emails to candidates. You can also use AI to schedule and confirm interviews, plus send out reminders to both yourself and your potential candidates so that no one forgets about the interview. Using AI scheduling tools allows your candidates to choose a date and time based on what you have available and what best suits them without having to go back and forth trying to figure it out. You’ll reduce time spent on figuring out the perfect time but also reduce the chances of your candidates forgetting or missing their scheduled interview. 

4. Provide Instant Answers With Chatbots

No one likes waiting around to get answers to questions, including your candidates. If they have a simple question, such as “What are the next steps in the hiring process?”, you can implement a chatbot on your careers page to give an answer. But how does this help avoid candidate ghosting? You’re providing candidates with a quick and accurate response. This keeps them engaged, which may make them want to stay committed to the hiring process. 

Hiring? You're in the Right Place. Reach Top Talent Today.

Get Started

5. Onboard Candidates With AI

Last but certainly not least, you can use AI to help your hires transition into their new role. You may think the battle is over once the offer letter has been signed, but believe it or not, candidate ghosting can happen even after an official offer has been accepted. 

Candidates not showing up for their first day of work is the worst-case scenario, but it’s not unheard of. Perhaps it’s because your new hires are feeling overwhelmed. Transitioning into a new job isn’t easy, but you can make it easier by using AI during your onboarding process. AI can provide useful information and resources to your new hires, such as a detailed onboarding schedule, training modules, and virtual tours of their new workplace. Having access to this information from day one will keep your new hires engaged and committed. 

Help for Hiring Challenges

Candidate ghosting is a scary but real possibility that many employers like yourself will face during the hiring process. But just because it’s a real threat doesn’t mean that you can’t do things to reduce the chances of job ghosting. iHire can help you overcome these challenges by providing you with employer resources that will help you from the start of the hiring process to the end and even beyond. Let both iHire and AI accelerate your hiring journey.