How To Stop Employees From Ghosting You

Recently ghosting has become a big problem for employers looking to hire new workers. About 80% of companies have had someone ghost them during the interview or onboarding process. Recruiting top talent takes a lot of time and costs money and company resources. The last thing you want is for a new hire you’re excited about to ghost you before they even start, or disappear after a few weeks of paid training.

Luckily you can prevent new employees from ghosting you by tweaking your hiring and training process. Read on to learn more.

How To Stop New Hires From Ghosting You

Make Them Feel Welcome

Once a candidate accepts your job offer, do your best to make them feel like part of the team even before their first day. Send them an enthusiastic welcome letter or a gift package with some company swag. If your company has any virtual water coolers like social Slack channels, shoot them an invitation. Get some of the people they’ll be working with directly to reach out to them. If new hires feel a personal connection to your business, they’ll be much less likely to ghost without a word.

Offer A 90-Day Signing Bonus

In this tight labor market, some employers are offering signing bonuses to entice workers to join their company. However, it’s important to be strategic about when this lump sum is paid out if you want to retain your new hires.

Instead of including the bonus in their first or second paycheck, withhold it for two or three months. This will motivate new employees to keep showing up to work every day to secure their bonus, reducing the chances that they’ll ghost. Once they get the hang of their role and settle into a routine, they won’t be as tempted to leave if a more attractive job offer comes along.

Offer Competitive Pay

The most common reason new hires ghost is because they’ve gotten a better job offer. If you’re having trouble attracting workers, revisit your compensation and benefits package for the role you’re struggling to fill. Compare the salary you’re offering to new employees to market rates in your area.

If you’re paying below market wages, that may be the reason why you’re being ghosted frequently. Candidates may be accepting your employment offer as a backup and ditching your company when they land a more lucrative job. If you want to be an employee’s first choice, you might have to bump up your pay rates or provide perks like extra time off or flexible hours.

Be Honest In Your Job Description

Another way to prevent employees from ghosting during the interview or onboarding process is to be transparent in your job description. State all the responsibilities and tasks involved in the role so new hires exactly know what to expect. That way they won’t ghost you during onboarding because the job is different than what they thought it would be after reading your job ad and attending interviews.

You should also consider including the pay range in your job description. You don’t want candidates to reach the offer stage and find out their salary expectations are much higher than what you’re willing to pay. This kind of mismatch in expectations can lead to ghosting, so it’s best avoided.

How To Prevent Freelancers From Ghosting You

I’ve never had to hire employees for my freelance writing business. But I have worked with a few freelancers in the past. Sadly I was ghosted by someone I hired to build my website. I was able to get my money back because I paid with PayPal. But the whole experience was frustrating to say the least. Here are some of the things I wish I would’ve done to prevent that freelancer from ghosting me.

Ask For References

One of the main things I wish I did when hiring a freelancer to build my website was ask for references. An experienced freelancer will be happy to give you a reference letter from a past client or the email address of a happy customer. If the freelancer you want to hire doesn’t have glowing testimonials or references you can contact, I’d recommend steering clear. It’s not enough to view someone’s portfolio of past work. You have to verify that they’re reliable and good at meeting deadlines, or else you may get ghosted halfway through the project like I did.

Send a Detailed Brief

Speaking from experience, it’s difficult to work with clients who aren’t sure what they want. If you don’t give your freelancer clear direction, they may ghost you instead of trying to clarify expectations. Providing a detailed brief from the start makes the project easier to complete and lowers the chance that the freelancer will leave you hanging.

Use a Protected Payment Method

Finally, make sure you protect yourself by using a payment method you can perform a chargeback on. Although you hope the project will go off without a hitch, you need to be able to get your money back if the freelancer suddenly disappears. I usually use PayPal to send deposits to freelancers. But you can also use a platform like UpWork to set project milestones. This ensures that the freelancer only gets paid when the work is completed to your satisfaction.

Have you ever been ghosted by an employee or freelancer? How did you handle it? Share your story in the comments section below!

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