Companies that are serious about their reputation would never ignore a customer inquiry, hang up on a business partner mid-call, or leave a client hanging after an initial meeting. Yet, many business organizations today are in the habit of “ghosting” job candidates — in other words, abruptly cutting off communication during the hiring process without any warning. Are you ghosting candidates?

How widespread is this pattern? According to Greenhouse’s 2024 State of Job Hunting report, 61% of candidates report being ghosted after a job interview. Clearly, this is a significant issue that affects the job market today.

As recruiting and hiring experts at The Doyle Group, we’ve seen firsthand how damaging candidate ghosting can be. Let’s break down why ghosting candidates is so harmful to a company’s reputation, and how you can ensure it doesn’t happen at your organization.

How Ghosting Candidates Hurts Companies

1. Reputational Damage

Candidates who are ghosted don’t just forget. They tell their peers, post reviews on Glassdoor, and sometimes even take to LinkedIn. A single poor hiring experience can snowball into a public perception problem, especially for startups and mid-sized companies that rely on word-of-mouth to compete with enterprise brands.

A strong employer brand hinges on how you treat people — even those you don’t end up hiring.

2. Poor Candidate Experience = Lost Talent

In a talent-driven market, how you treat candidates is more than a courtesy — it’s a competitive advantage. Even in an employer’s market, top performers often have multiple offers. If your process lacks transparency and respect, they’ll self-select out (and take their friends with them).

Ghosting one candidate today could mean losing five qualified applicants tomorrow.

3. Eroded Internal Trust

Hiring isn’t a vacuum—it affects your whole team. If an internal team sees a revolving door of interviews with no hires, they begin to lose confidence.

Maybe the role you’re hiring for was supposed to ease their workload. If that position remains vacant because good candidates were left hanging, they’re stuck doing double duty with no end in sight.

It sends the wrong message: “We don’t have our act together; we’re not serious about filling this role.” That sentiment quietly impacts morale, retention, and culture.

4. Wasted Bridges in a Talent Shortage

Especially in industries where niche skills or certifications are rare, burning a bridge with a great candidate today might mean losing access when you really need them tomorrow. Talent networks are tighter than ever, and with countless platforms — like social media, Slack communities, and employer review sites — candidates can quickly and widely share their experiences, both positive and negative. A negative experience doesn’t just cost one hire — it can echo across your entire pipeline.

Clearly, ghosting candidates is a bad look for any company. With that being said, what steps can you take to prevent candidate ghosting in the first place?

How To Prevent Candidate Ghosting

Preventing candidate ghosting doesn’t require an overhaul of your hiring systems—it just requires intentionality, structure, and empathy. The foundation is a clearly defined hiring process. Document the stages from initial outreach to final decision-making, and ensure every person involved — from recruiters to hiring managers — understands who owns which step. This helps prevent key moments, like post-interview follow-up, from falling through the cracks.

Equally important is setting expectations with candidates from the start. Be transparent about what the process looks like, how long it typically takes, and when they can expect to hear back. Most job seekers don’t need instant updates — they just need clarity and consistency. If timelines shift, as they often do, communicate proactively. A simple message that says, “We’re still reviewing candidates” or “There’s been a delay due to shifting priorities” goes a long way in showing candidates they’re not being forgotten.

Recruiting partners like The Doyle Group can help enforce this standard. We serve as communication stewards on your behalf, ensuring that no matter how busy your internal teams are, candidates stay informed and respected. Our role isn’t just to fill roles — it’s to protect your brand and preserve candidate goodwill even when plans change.

Technology can also play a supporting role. Applicant tracking systems and automation tools can trigger timely status updates or notifications when a role has been filled. But automation is only as effective as the thought process behind it. For candidates who’ve invested significant time in interviews, a personal note or phone call carries far more weight than a generic rejection email.

Finally, treat candidate communication as part of your team’s accountability. Train hiring managers and interviewers on the importance of follow-up, and consider incorporating candidate experience into their performance metrics. After all, if a candidate ghosted your company after an offer, it would be cause for concern. The reverse should be just as unacceptable.

By closing the loop with professionalism and empathy, you turn every interaction — whether it leads to a hire or not — into an opportunity to reinforce your company’s values.

The Bottom Line: Professionalism Matters

In today’s competitive hiring landscape, how you treat candidates is as important as who you hire. Ghosting goes beyond a poor interaction — it harms your brand, slows down your hiring success, and weakens your internal teams.

The good news is that fixing it isn’t hard. It just requires intentionality and effort. At The Doyle Group, we help organizations of all sizes refine their hiring experience so that everyone — candidates and internal stakeholders alike — feel respected and informed. We believe that strong communication isn’t optional; it’s a strategic advantage that any business organization can leverage. Contact our team today to learn more about how we can help.