I recently resigned from a company in Port Moresby because I experienced poor practices of professionalism. This resulted in me being unemployed for 3 months.
During that period, I applied for jobs and was lucky to be interviewed by organizations but surprisingly, only a few gave feedback after the interviews were completed. I expected tangible feedback through basic communication platforms like email, phone, or even LinkedIn, but received none. And mind you, I am still connected to the interviewers on LinkedIn. So as a professional recruiter who has been in the business for 7 years, I saw this as very unsavory, unprofessional conduct on their part.
This, in my opinion, creates a long-lasting negative impression of the company in the minds of the interviewee. Bad experiences (such as mine) travel amongst peers, thus influencing and cutting off a potential thread of talent for the company to tap into should the position become vacant in the future.
Now, I’m not being bitter here but I pride myself on being a professional recruiter because I strongly believe we need to make it our business to maintain the required professional expectations and standards.
I follow a few other blogs on LinkedIn and one of them has given a term for this unwarranted professional behavior, called “Ghosting“.
To give you a close definition of the term, here is a link to a blog done by Alex Christian called Why workers and employers are ghosting each other, where Alex states that “Ghosting was originally coined in the dating world: it meant a sudden, unexpected end to all contact. It’s a social phenomenon increasingly being co-opted in the workplace – and put into practice on either side of the interview table.“
“Ghosting was originally coined in the dating world: it meant a sudden, unexpected end to all contact. It’s a social phenomenon increasingly being co-opted in the workplace – and put into practice on either side of the interview table.” – Alex Christian, Why workers and employers are ghosting each other.
To give you a clear picture of my “ghosting” experience, here are the stats on the total number of organizations I was interviewed by, the number of organizations that gave feedback, and organizations I declined due to various reasons unrelated to this blog post:
The number of organizations I was interviewed by between May – September 2022:
8
The number of organizations that provided adequate feedback on my interview results between May – September 2022:
2
The number of organizations that did not give feedback on my interview results between May – September 2022:
4
The number of organizations that I was interviewed by made offers but I declined due to various reasons between May – September 2022:
2
Out of a total of 8 interviews, 50% of organizations that interviewed me did not provide any feedback on my interview results, while 25% provided feedback and the remaining 25%’s offers were unfavorable.
Thus, the figures demonstrate that “ghosting” is widespread in Port Moresby by organizations, which I respectfully will not reveal in this blog, as it is not my desired intention but it is to merely empower Papua New Guineans with information to win in the world of job-seeking using my personal and professional experiences.
So why is “ghosting” frequently occurring in Port Moresby? I’ve been able to identify some key reasons and potential solutions, based on my professional experiences as a recruiter, and are discussed below:
The daunting effort of responding to the mass applicants.
It’s essentially important to leverage technology to ease the load of responding to a relatively high volume of unsuccessful applicants, a practical tip is sending out template emails to all unsuccessful candidates, utilizing the blind copy function.
Lack of professional empathy being demonstrated by interviewers.
Professional recruiters need to demonstrate an adequate level of understanding the perspectives of the job seekers’ urge to receive tangible feedback. Being courteous and kind goes a long way.
Lack of clear and concise communication between the interviewers and their direct reports on how to maintain effective management of the recruitment process.
Clear and concise communication needs to be maintained between the interviewers (Recruitment Consultants) and their direct reports (Recruitment managers/Supervisors) to avoid miscommunication issues or assumptions during the recruitment process. Poor communication leads to raised assumptions between team members and is a negative risk factor that enables “ghosting”. There are many detrimental factors that lead to this point but it will be discussed in another blog.
Incompetent recruitment managers or coordinators who lack credible academic knowledge and skills have the tendency to overlook the importance of working within set time periods.
Delays in maintaining an engaging and effective recruitment process with clients or stakeholders become a negative cost factor to the recruitment operations and the organization as a whole. Organizations need to employ suitable Recruitment Managers or Coordinators who have the required qualifications, skills, and experience. This will bridge the gap between time inefficiencies and improve performance outcomes or success rates of the organization.
In all fairness, I would like to commend the two (2) organizations that gave feedback on my interview results even though I was unsuccessful. I appreciated the detailed feedback as it enabled me to make well-informed decisions about my performance in order to prepare for other interviews.
In this constantly evolving technology and business world, organizations and professionals behind the recruitment desk need to maintain professional accountability and cultural awareness that will enable them to reach their full potential.
Let me finish this blog by quoting a famous verse from the Holy Bible, Mathew Chapter 7: Verse 12: “In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.” To put this into perspective, what we put into the world, will come back to us in return.
If you’ve experienced “ghosting” anywhere in PNG during your job-searching pursuits, I would love to hear about it in the comments below.
But until next time, thanks for reading. #ThePNGRecruiter
