One minute they're "super keen" and confirming Thursday at 2pm. The next, nothing.

Your email goes unanswered. Your call goes to voicemail. And the LinkedIn profile you've definitely not been checking still says Open to Work.

If you've hired anyone in the last few years, you've probably been ghosted. And if you've looked for a job in that time, there's a good chance you've been on the other end of it too: the application that vanished into the void, the final interview that never got a follow-up call, the "we'll be in touch next week" that never was.

Ghosting has become one of the most talked-about frustrations in hiring. It's easy to put it down to bad manners. But from where we sit, having these conversations with candidates and HR leaders every day, it's rarely that simple. And the good news is that most of it is preventable.

It's usually avoidance, not malice

Very few people set out to ghost anyone. What usually happens is far more human.

Telling someone "I've accepted another offer" or "we've decided to go another way" is uncomfortable. Nobody enjoys delivering news that might disappoint, especially to someone they've built a bit of rapport with. So the message gets put off until tomorrow. Then the end of the week. Then it starts to feel strange to say anything at all, because so much time has passed.

By that point, silence feels like the least awkward option. It isn't, of course. But in the moment, it's easy to see how people get there.

That matters, because it changes how you fix it. If ghosting were purely about rudeness, there wouldn't be much an employer could do. Because it's mostly about friction and discomfort, there's plenty you can do to make honesty the easier path.

Why candidates go quiet

When we unpack a ghosting story with a candidate (and they're often surprisingly candid once the dust has settled), a few patterns come up again and again.

The process dragged

This is the big one. When a week or two passes between stages with no update, candidates don't sit still. They keep interviewing, they take the recruiter call they'd been ignoring, and they start to read the silence as a lack of interest. By the time your offer lands, they've often moved on, mentally if not literally. Ghosting is frequently the end of a process that went quiet first.

The counter-offer crept in

A candidate who resigns and then gets talked into staying is in an awkward spot. They've been enthusiastic with you, maybe even signed. Now they need to explain a complete change of heart. For some, going dark feels easier than having that conversation.

Something felt off

Candidates notice more than employers think. An interview rescheduled twice. A vague answer when they asked about salary. A hiring manager who checked their phone throughout. A role that sounded different in the second interview than the first. None of these is a dealbreaker on its own, but together they can quietly erode trust. And when someone has lost trust in a process, they're less likely to feel they owe it an explanation.

There were too many hoops

Multiple rounds, a lengthy take-home task, a psychometric test, a panel, then "one more quick chat" with someone new. Every extra step is a moment where a candidate weighs up whether this is still worth it. Some decide it isn't, and simply stop showing up.

Employers ghost too

It would be a bit rich to talk about candidates disappearing without looking in the mirror. Ask any job seeker and you'll hear just as many stories about employers who vanished.

Most of the time, it isn't deliberate either. The role gets put on hold and nobody tells the shortlist. The hiring manager goes on leave mid-process. Internal approvals stall, and no one wants to send an update that says "we don't know yet". Or there's simply no clear owner for closing the loop, so everyone assumes someone else has done it.

The cost is real. Candidates talk, and a reputation for leaving people hanging travels fast in a market as connected as HR. The person you didn't get back to this year might be the perfect hire next year, or the friend someone else asks, "What are they like to interview with?"

In other words, if you want candidates to treat your process with respect, the process has to go first.

How to ghost-proof your hiring process

You can't stop every disappearing act. But you can make silence much less likely, and make honesty the path of least resistance.

1. Set the timeline at the start, then stick to it. Tell candidates how many stages there are, roughly how long each will take and when they'll hear back. Block interview time in the hiring manager's calendar before you go to market, not after.

2. Never let a week go by without contact. Even "no news yet, but you're still very much in the mix" keeps someone engaged. Silence is where doubt grows.

3. Name one owner for every candidate. Someone should be clearly responsible for each person's updates, from first call to final outcome. Whether that's HR, the hiring manager or your recruiter, write it down.

4. Make it easy to say no. Tell candidates early that if their circumstances change, a quick message is all you need, no hard feelings. It sounds small, but giving people permission to be honest makes them far more likely to do it.

5. Talk about counter-offers before they happen. Ask, gently, how their current employer might react to a resignation and what would make them stay. It surfaces wobbles early, while there's still time to address them.

6. Trim the hoops. Look hard at every stage and ask what it tells you that the others don't. If the answer is "not much", cut it.

7. Stay close through the notice period. An accepted offer isn't a done deal until day one. A welcome call from the manager, an invite to a team lunch or simply checking in every week or so keeps the connection warm.

8. Close every loop, including the unsuccessful ones. Every candidate who interviews deserves a real answer. It's the right thing to do, and it's how you build the kind of reputation that makes great people want to apply next time.

The bottom line

Ghosting feels personal when it happens to you. But more often than not, it's a symptom of a process that left room for doubt, delay or discomfort.

Close those gaps and you'll find most people are happy to tell you where they stand. Even when the answer isn't the one you were hoping for.

Planning a hire and want a process candidates actually stick around for? We're great at listening. Drop us a message for a confidential chat.