Candidate Cancelled Interview Last Minute

Canceled Job Interview

At first glance, it tin seem offensive when a candidate cancels their interview with you lot. Yous're giving them a fantastic opportunity, and all they demand to do is attend the interview, however they call the whole thing off.

Information technology leaves you in a tricky position. You now have an open fourth dimension slot, and the chances of getting someone else in to fill it are pretty slim, particularly if it was a day-of cancelation. If yous traveled to conduct the interview, it becomes a lot of wasted time and expense.

Before you get mad, remove them from your candidate pool, or take any deportment, step dorsum and take a deep breath. Chances are, it'due south nada personal. At that place are many reasons why a candidate may cancel an interview, and the steps you take post-obit such a cancelation say a lot about y'all and your company.

Reasons Why a Candidate Cancels an Interview

A candidate volition either tell yous why they're canceling the interview or won't. If they practice, you may take an opportunity to bring them back at some other time. If they don't, y'all may be able to reach out and ask what happened and have information technology from there.

There are many unlike reasons why a candidate might cancel an interview, or even no-call, no-evidence the interview. Some are bad, of form, but others are understandable and can be worked around. Knowing the reason why, to the best of your ability, is your first step.

Reasons Candidate Cancels

Some of the more mutual reasons why candidates cancel interviews include:

A different company hired them kickoff. The all-time candidates are in loftier demand, especially in the electric current candidate-focused chore market. If your hiring process is slower than the competition's, they will be able to go to a candidate get-go.
An accident, medical effect, or family issue prevented the interview. Mayhap your candidate was involved in a auto crash on the way to the interview, their ailing mother tripped and had to be taken to the emergency room, or a child bankrupt an arm. There are a 1000000 different reasons a candidate might have an emergency.
They learned something about your visitor they don't like. Sometimes, in researching your company, your candidate comes beyond something they don't similar. Maybe it's some statement past your CEO. Perhaps information technology'southward malpractice on the role of service reps. Perhaps it's an overall reputation thing or a tip from an insider. It may fifty-fifty be a revelation about the salary range y'all offer. Any the case, they inverse their mind nearly working with you.
Unavoidable delays prevented them from attention. Possibly your candidate is flying in from out of country, and the airline delays the flying, and then they can't make it in time. Certain, y'all can say they should take flown out earlier, but that may not be possible, depending on their schedule.
They just plain forgot about it. No one is perfect, and nosotros all let things sideslip our minds. Something as high-priority as a task interview should usually be unforgettable, only sometimes, life is just so stressful things skid through the cracks.

Every reason a candidate cancels an interview has a unlike set of possible responses. The ane primal tenet is this: don't get angry. Your response to a canceled interview will reverberate on your company. An angry response will likely be circulated on social media and chore search portals, earning your visitor a poor reputation.

Assemble Information

The kickoff matter you want to do is learn why the candidate skipped the interview. Generally, there will be a few kinds of responses.

The start, and the worst, is pure ghosting. Sometimes, a candidate has some reason why they're no longer interested in working for y'all. Maybe they took another offer, or something happened, and they're no longer in the market. Whatever the case, they no longer call yous, they don't answer their phone when you call, and they don't respond to emails. They've entirely ghosted you lot.

This is terrible do on the part of the candidate, just let'southward be honest hither: how many candidates have you dropped contact with in the class of hiring? For decades, companies have gotten away with merely ignoring anyone who doesn't make it through the hiring process. Even a courtesy "we've selected someone else" email was too much for some businesses. Maybe not yours – perhaps you were skillful most it! – simply many candidates accept had bad experiences and don't experience bad about turning the tables when the power is in their favor.

Sometimes, the candidate doesn't care virtually called-for a bridge. Sometimes, something comes up that gets in the mode of contacting you. If your candidate was involved in a car accident and ended up in the infirmary for a week earlier they could speak, well, in that location's a justified reason for not contacting you.

Calling Job Applicant

The important part is, if they reach dorsum out to you, enquire them why they weren't able to let you know at the time. The way they answer volition determine what kind of second chance you can requite them.

The 2nd possibility is that the candidate took another offer and is no longer interested in working for you. This is relatively common in the candidate-focused market right now, and information technology means you may need to brand some changes to your hiring process to capture your candidates better.

Sometimes, the candidate will exist responsive to communications but doesn't think to attain out proactively. This can be a strike confronting them, but it may not mean they're a terrible candidate. Information technology's upwards to y'all whether or not y'all proceed them in your long-term candidate puddle.

And, of class, sometimes something comes up, and the candidate volition need to reschedule. If they proactively contact you and ask about rescheduling, you tin can work with them to selection a new time for their interview. Sometimes it hurts, particularly if the lost time from the interview is expensive, but if the candidate is good enough, it'due south worth information technology.

Take Steps to Reduce Interview Cancelations

A single interview cancelation is likely the candidate's mistake and may not exist something you tin can solve. A serial of them may point a trend in your hiring process that you demand to solve.

Steps To Reduce Cancelations

Here are some things you tin await into:

1. Reduce your fourth dimension-to-hire.

You may feel helpless if a candidate cancels their interview with you because they accustomed another offer. The truth is, this isn't entirely outside of your control. In that location are two things you can do.

The first is to ask the candidate what offer they received and see if you lot can beat it. You may not be prepared to offer them a job on the spot, only you may be able to convince them to still interview for it (perhaps under the guise of interview do or a depression-stakes interview) and offering them a better offer when they come in. Not everyone will seize with teeth, but some will, and you may be able to poach the candidate from your competition.

The second is to examine your hiring procedure. If competitors are hiring people out from under you when you oasis't fifty-fifty interviewed them yet, information technology means they started the hiring procedure earlier than you did (such as if the candidate has been putting out weekly applications for months), or their hiring process is faster than yours.

If you tin discover ways to reduce downtime and increase your hiring speed, you should be able to undercut the competition and reduce canceled interviews.

2. Implement flexible interview systems.

Interviewing doesn't accept to be rigid and inflexible. If yous set a fourth dimension and firmly stick to it, your candidate may not feel valued equally a candidate. If they demand to cancel, they may feel like it'south amend to ghost you than attempt to work with you, specially if you run across as dismissive or put-upon for beingness asked to reschedule.

Sure, it can be a hassle to reschedule interviews multiple times with the same candidate. If your goodwill is being abused, it's more than than reason plenty to cut off the candidate. However, y'all desire to exist flexible and open up to alternatives for expert candidates. If nada else, information technology shows that your visitor has a civilization of respect for your employees.

You lot may also consider shifting to a more than flexible form of interview. Video interviews over Zoom or Skype, asynchronous interviews, phone interviews, and even interviews outside of typical business hours tin can all be good options for hooking candidates who accept scheduling bug otherwise.

3. Ask for honest feedback in the event of a cancelation.

When an interview is missed or canceled, it tin exist worthwhile to send the candidate an email asking them for feedback. Ask honestly, and exist prepared for brutally honest feedback.

For example, maybe your hiring representative was terse or rude – or simply came across every bit such – which turned off the candidate. You may need to offer that employee more training to avoid such an outcome.

Another possibility is that your bacon range, benefits, or civilisation don't piece of work for the candidate, and they but found out after scheduling an interview. Information technology can help if y'all're more upward-front with that data.

A common possibility is that yous're working with a shoddy third-party recruiting agency. That agency may be more interested in earning commissions based on lining up interviews, and less on providing relevant candidates, then the misalignment between candidate expectations and your open office gets in the way.

Continue With Other Interviews

Sometimes, a candidate may have a valid reason for needing to abolish or reschedule an interview. Maybe they thought they had another offer on lock, only to lose it at the last minute, or they had a family emergency, and your job offer took 2nd phase.

You should remain open to the possibility of still interviewing and potentially hiring the candidate. While some reasons for rescheduling (I forgot!) may be a strike against them, they had enough going for them to get in to the interviews in the start place, afterwards all. And, of course, some things like family emergencies aren't going to be regular occurrences.

At the same fourth dimension, the globe won't wait for them, and neither should y'all. The chances are you have more than than just ane candidate lined up for interviews, and one candidate canceling an interview is non grounds for halting the unabridged process unless some regulation or law is saying otherwise.

Interviewing Job Candidate

You should be open up to rescheduling the interview, but if too much time has passed and you're hiring someone else, the opportunity is gone. The ball is in the candidate'south court for how proactively they reschedule and stay involved in the hiring procedure.

While some reasons a candidate bails on the interview are reasonable and worth overlooking, others are not. A candidate who forgets their interview engagement, schedules their transportation poorly, or otherwise doesn't manage their fourth dimension appropriately may be revealing something near their fourth dimension management skills that would make them a worse employee than you expected.

Always Maintain Respect and Rapport

The hiring process is non an impartial, by-the-numbers, algorithmic process, as much as we like to apply software and impartial scoring systems to run it. Today, a vital function of the hiring procedure is building rapport with your candidates.

When you lot have a more coincidental, closer relationship with your candidates, they will exist more communicative and respectful of your fourth dimension. It volition reduce the rate of ghosting and no-call cancelations, and you lot'll be more likely to get valuable feedback from them when you inquire.

Respectful Job Interview

The worst affair y'all can practice as an employer looking to hire is reacting strongly and negatively to a cancelation. If a single cancelation puts an employee on a denylist for the future, or if your hiring director responds angrily to a cancelation, word will get around, and your candidate pool will worsen. Respect is essential, and it goes both ways.

Do you accept any questions or concerns almost how to handle an interview cancelation? If so, please experience costless to leave a annotate downwardly below, and nosotros'll get a conversation started! Reacting appropriately to a state of affairs such every bit this is critical, so if you lot would like a little more description on the topic, we would exist more than happy to assist you yet we can!

Andrew Greenberg'southward roots in recruiting date back to 1996. He has experience both on the agency-side and corporate-side of the staffing business organization, with a focus in the financial services space at companies like Bloomberg and UBS. He too has cadre experience with it staffing, and has worked for major software companies such every bit SAP Business Objects and IBM/Informix Software. To go in touch with Andrew, y'all tin reach him by email or by phone at (800) 797-6160.