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Episode 294 Avoid Ghost Hires and New Employee Turnover

In this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike shares ways to avoid ghost hires.

I hear more and more about hiring managers making job offers to candidates and they never show back up. 

I am going to try and give you a few tips today, but make sure you listen to The Lead Up Podcast this Friday for Episode 294 for more tips and tools and depth on how to implement. 

I wish I knew why someone would say yes to your job offer and then ghost you. To me, this makes no sense at all. I have always been a person who will tell you yes and mean it or tell you no if I am not interested. 

We have a lot of challenges in the workforce, and you know I have been writing, podcasting, and teaching about this for a while now. I wrote about it in my book Quit Losing Talent. Do you have your copy? 

Here are a few ideas to reduce ghost hires:  

  1.  Once you make an offer, ask them if there is anything that will prevent them from showing up on an agreed-to-start date. Often, we get excited and forget to close the candidate down or ask for any objections. They may say yes, but still, be looking at another job and don’t want to say no to you right now. I suggest asking the candidate if they are considering other jobs in the market and what would change their mind about your offer if they were still looking. 
  2.  Once the offer is made and they accept, walk the candidate to HR and get the pre-employment work start right away. We can often lose a candidate in the waiting. We must be swift in today’s climate. Don’t delay the HR paperwork, drug screen, health screen, or anything that can be done now or at least scheduled for immediate follow-up. 
  3.  As soon as they leave, HANDWRITE them a notecard, and mail it to them to welcome them to your team. Let them know how excited you are to begin onboarding them and developing them to be awesome in their new role. 
  4.  THIS ONE IS GOING TO HURT: STOP GHOSTING PEOPLE. I have literally interviewed over 20,000 people. The number one complaint I hear from job seekers is they hate getting ghosted by employers and do not know what is going on. If you don’t like them for your role, tell them. If you do like them but still need some approval from others, keep the candidate informed. BE A PRO and treat them like you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes. 

Now let’s talk about losing new hires after they show up. 

If you can keep a new hire past 6-months, you are likely to keep them for 3 years. But how can you make sure this happens? 

3 tips that lead to excellence. 

  1.  Create a robust 90-day onboarding checklist and plan that you share with them on day one and follow it like their tenure relies on it…it does. 
  2.  Deal with bully employees and your tenured staff that mistreat new hires and run them off. I often hear that older employees treat new employees like the new slave help, and the last time I checked we don’t allow that in America. If you have an older employee mistreating new hires, coach them up and hold them accountable or fire them immediately. This person/s is costing you 10s of thousands of dollars in recruitment, training, and productivity cost. 
  3.  Meet with your new employee weekly for the first 12 weeks and have a talent lock conversation with them each week. 

There you have it. 7 Great tips that didn’t cost you a dime to read but will cost you time to implement and 100s of thousands of dollars if you don’t. 

Check out Quit Losing Talent to learn more.