Recruitment is still recruitment. Meaning: it’s always about identifying a vacancy, sourcing candidates, conducting interviews, and negotiating an offer… just in a different landscape. 

• Reviewing a Pool of Candidates 

• Selecting a few from the pool based on the JD 

• Calling and shortlisting 

• Arranging Interview – First Round 

• Arranging Interview – Second Round 

• Selection, Background Check, and Offer 

There is a new challenge, "No Show," at every step above, and the candidate disappears. A tremendous amount of time, money, and resources is spent finding good people. It is an administrative nightmare, and it's a behavioral, business, and economic stress to an organization and its people. 

Multiple job offers for just a few years of experience are new regular. It's raining jobs in Indian IT. Everyone's poaching from each other, and resignations are soaring. But there aren't enough qualified people. The joining bonuses, bikes, Apple laptops/iPhones, and flex working are not enough to attract candidates. The 60-90 days’ notice period allows candidates to shop for more offers. 

Global demand for digitization has led to a hiring boom, leading to in-house recruiter and recruiting companies working overtime to face a new reality of candidate no-shows, negotiations nightmare, multiple offers, no shows after accepting the offer, and early attrition (people leaving within first three months). 

Since the job market is very dynamic, there is a significant gap in the demand and supply of qualified professionals.  

Unfortunately, a candidate doesn't show up when you are ready for the interview. Your first reaction will be either to ignore the candidate or even drop the candidate for lack of professionalism. These reactions can have adverse impacts, and you may lose excellent candidates if there is a genuine reason for not showing up. It may impact the company's reputation if this could be the partial fault of the company itself. It's better to follow up with a no-show candidate and find the real reason as well as the solution.  

Ankita Mishra, responsible for leading the team at KritikalHire, explained her team's approach. She explains the importance of adopting high roads in such instances and being polite to those who ghosted.  

Here are some critical steps the KritikalHire Team explained as a practical approach to this awkward situation based on their day-to-day experience and study of several publications listed below: 

• How to handle an interview no showi 

• 10 Tips to Managing Interview Cancellations and No Showsii 

• Interview No-shows – How to Handle it?

• You're basically hiring anyone that would show up.

• How to prevent interview no-showsv 

• IT employees wooed with bonuses & bikes

Necessary steps when candidates do now show up: 

• First, keep your cool, practice self-controlled behavior, be polite and understanding 

• Set up interviews quickly, reduce interview lag time, reduce screening time and offer interview scheduling flexibility 

• Coach hiring managers on the importance of not rescheduling interviews 

• Understand candidates' expectations and goals beforehand - Be clear about the role and explore candidates' motivations early on 

• Reduce screening time and offer interview scheduling flexibility - Consider better scheduling options 

• Refer to the communication log and verify details 

• Offer flexible interview scheduling - Cut candidates some slack - Provide flexible, upcoming interviewing schedules - Consider better scheduling options. 

• Your relationship with the candidate matters 

• Ask candidates directly. - Obtain candidate feedback 

• Keep communicating with candidates - Communicate well with candidates - Keep all candidate communications clear 

• Set expectations upfront with candidates  

• Coach hiring managers on the importance of not rescheduling interviews 

• Confirm interviews more than once 

• Text candidates 

• Build a stronger bench 

• Find out why candidates are dropping out. 

• See the silver lining. 

• Make inquires 

• Move on and send a polite rejection. 

• Send a polite rejection. 

• Prevention is better than a no-show. 

• Be clear about the role and explore candidates' motivations early. 

• Ensure your hiring team members maintain proper decorum. 

• Obtain candidate feedback 

Make a few tweaks to your hiring process to ensure that interview no-show do not become a recurring nuisance. Here are some that you need to consider. 

1. Coach hiring managers on the importance of not rescheduling interviews 

2. Understand candidates' expectations and goals beforehand - Be clear about the role and explore candidates' motivations early on 

3. Reduce screening time and offer interview scheduling flexibility - Consider better scheduling options 

4. Keep all candidate communications clear. 

5. Obtain candidate feedback - Communicate well with candidates 

6. Ensure your hiring team members maintain proper decorum. 

7. Maintain your professionalism