Hiring Ghosting & the Trust Gap in Recruitment

Baki Can Feyiz
16 saat önce
5 dakikada okunur

Once upon a time, receiving no response to a job application felt like a personal misfortune. Today, it is almost considered normal. For many candidates, ghosting is no longer just a post-interview disappointment; it has become an ordinary experience that starts right at the beginning, with no response to the application itself. In the modern recruitment world, ghosting—quietly disappearing—has shifted from an exceptional lapse in courtesy to a systemic habit. For many candidates, the process is no longer defined by rejection, but by being silently “dropped” from the very start.

Despite how normalised it may seem, candidates are far from comfortable with this reality.

It may sound dramatic, but the experience itself is very concrete: the vast majority of applications receive no response, interviews are left unfinished, and processes are abandoned without explanation. What is particularly striking is that data shows ghosting occurs most frequently not after interviews, but at the application stage. In other words, candidates often become invisible not later in the process, but right at the door.

This is not merely a communication failure; it is a clear breach of trust. Silence is rarely about a candidate’s competence and far more often about the system itself. Data from Greenhouse and SHRM points to a deeper structural issue behind this feeling of being “discarded”: a recruitment ecosystem overloaded with automation, lacking clarity, and increasingly sluggish. Unclosed processes, unmet expectations, and unacknowledged human effort have become the system’s natural by-products.

One factor that further intensifies this picture is inaccurate, incomplete, or unclear job postings. Roles that do not reflect real needs, fail to define expectations, or are no longer active increase the workload for recruitment teams while creating significant uncertainty for candidates. From the candidate’s perspective, repeatedly applying via “easy apply” without fully reading the role or assessing true fit may seem efficient in the short term, but in the long run it fuels a process in which both sides more easily ignore—or abandon—each other.

The outcome is exhausting for both parties. Recruiters are overwhelmed by volumes of unqualified or irrelevant applications. Candidates, meanwhile, feel invisible in a system where they cannot even get a response at the application stage. The process becomes a mutually reinforcing negative cycle that steadily loses effectiveness. Ghosting is not the cause of this cycle; it is often its result.

The irony is that this breakdown is happening at a time when recruitment technologies are more advanced than ever. Applying for a job has never been easier. Feeling that your application is genuinely reviewed, however, has perhaps never been harder. More than half of organisations now use AI in processes such as CV screening, yet insufficient investment is made in the human capacity required to work alongside these tools. The result is not efficiency, but overload.

As candidates feel increasingly invisible, mass applications rise. Recruitment teams lose the capacity to respond under mounting application volumes. Silence gradually shifts from being a choice to becoming a defence mechanism, quietly embedding itself into organisational culture.

In this environment, trust erodes not only on the organisational side, but also on the candidate side. Candidates disappear mid-process, accepted offers go unfulfilled, and behaviours described as “career catfishing” become more common. This is less a story of irresponsibility and more the outcome of defensive reflexes developed in response to slow, unresponsive systems. When neither side expects clarity from the other, professional accountability naturally weakens.

At the centre of all this lies the black box of recruitment. Applications go in, but responses do not come out. Weeks or months of silence drive candidates inward: Was I unqualified? Did I make a mistake? Yet in most cases, silence has little to do with performance and far more to do with internal chaos, shifting priorities, or capacity constraints. Being able to make this distinction is critical—not only for careers, but for mental well-being.

Some organisations have begun to pause and reflect. Instead of constantly searching externally, they are looking inward. Skills-based approaches, internal mobility, and rotation are proving effective in closing talent gaps. Skills that are often described as “unfindable” frequently already exist within the organisation; they simply need to be recognised and developed. This approach not only reduces recruitment pressure, but also strengthens a sense of fairness and continuity.

Regardless of the model chosen, however, systems do not function without clarity and accountability. At this point, certain foundational behaviours become decisive for both sides of the recruitment process.

For Candidates

Helpful practices

Read the job posting carefully and understand what the role truly offers.
Be honest with yourself: why are you a good fit for this role?
Apply intentionally; treat each application as a small investment.
A polite follow-up within a reasonable timeframe is professional.
Take note of your application experience—response time and communication are data too.

Practices to avoid

Mass-applying without reading the role.
Acting on the assumption that “they won’t respond anyway.”
Silently abandoning a process you have accepted.
Internalising silence as personal failure.

For Recruiters

Helpful practices

Keep job postings clear, realistic, and up to date.
Close or clearly label inactive roles.
Be transparent from the outset about process and timelines.
Close the loop with candidates, even when the outcome is negative.
Treat candidate experience as part of organisational reputation.

Practices to avoid

Collecting applications through vague, empty postings.
Normalising silence as an operational convenience.
Viewing candidates solely as “CVs.”
Failing to communicate changes in the process.

This is where RefX identifies a meaningful niche and opens new opportunities. In today’s recruitment world, the issue is not a lack of data, but the absence of meaningful collection and sharing of experience. What happens at the application stage and what follows interviews often remains invisible, despite both being foundational to the relationship between candidate and organisation.

RefX is designed to make experiences visible—both during the application phase and after interviews. Candidates can share real response times, communication clarity, and how processes actually unfold. Individual experiences no longer disappear; they become part of an anonymous, constructive space for collective learning.

This approach is not only about highlighting problems, but about amplifying good practice. Organisations that close processes on time, communicate transparently, and value feedback naturally stand out. RefX makes visible what “good recruitment” actually looks like—through concrete data rather than promises.

For candidates, RefX serves as a balancing mechanism that reduces uncertainty. Applications and interviews are no longer processes that end in silence, but interactions where experience is recognised as valuable. Candidates are not merely evaluated; they actively contribute to improving the system itself.

The most important value RefX offers is this trust-building loop. Without targeting or blaming, it creates space to understand, compare, and improve experiences across both application and interview stages.

Sometimes the most effective transformation does not happen loudly, but through a culture of clear and continuous feedback. RefX makes exactly that possible.

Refrences:

SHRM - shrm.org Makale Başlığı: "Candidate “Ghosting” and Employer Competition Are Fueling Talent Shortages, New SHRM Research Finds"

Sedona Staffing - sedonastaffing.com Makale Başlığı: "Employer Behavior & Ghosting: Healing the Hiring Disconnect"

NCDA (National Career Development Association) - ncda.org Makale Başlığı: "Ghosting in the Job Search: How to Help Ghosted Job Seekers"

Greenhouse - greenhouse.io Makale Başlığı: "Ghosting, ghost jobs and bots: Candidates reveal their top challenges in the Greenhouse 2024 State of Job Hunting report"

Theoris - theoris.com Makale Başlığı: "Ghosting: A Symptom of a Broken Hiring Process?"

X0PA AI - x0pa.com Makale Başlığı: "Ghosting: Definition & Meaning"

Indeed - indeed.com Makale Başlığı: "Recruiter Ghosting: Why It Happens and How To Handle It"

HRnetRimbun - hrnetrimbun.com Makale Başlığı: "Why Do Recruiters ‘Ghosting’ Candidates? Here’s the Explanation"

The Everest Group - theeverestgrp.com Makale Başlığı: "Why Recruiters Ghost?"