Ghost Busters: How to Solve the No-Show Problem

You hire a bright prospect. They sound enthused. You schedule their first day on the company calendar.

And they don’t show up.

You’ve been ghosted. It’s a common phenomenon in this tight labor market, where people can apply for a job with the click of a button—and counteroffers can lure away the best of the best.

“When people accept a job today, we have been given permission to sell them on showing up for their first day of work,” said Jason Dorsey, President of The Center for Generational Kinetics, Austin, TX (genhq.com). “So we need to take the right steps before their first scheduled day to keep them engaged and excited.”

Hiring managers can muffle the siren call of competing job offers by doing two things:

1. Placing a call to the candidate to establish a personal relationship, and to emphasize why the new hire is perfect for the company.
2. Following up with a series of texts providing details about the new position, useful information about perks and benefits, and invitations to call or text back with questions.

Faced with a one-to-one approach such as this, the flattered candidate will feel they are not going to work for some anonymous company, but for an individual with whom they have established rapport.

Resort Trades Series of Employee and Employer articles for more:

• Employee Satisfaction Affects Top Resorts
• Employee Poaching
• Three Key Steps to Find the Right Employees Online
• Employee Policies for Hospitality: 7 Key Considerations
• Attract and Retain Employees
• How To Engage Employees
• 12 Simple Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction and Retention