More candidates claim they’re getting ‘love bombed’ in job interviews
Hiring managers and candidates are having miscommunication issues.
It’s common to expect some job seekers to lie or misrepresent themselves in interviews. But it seems like hiring managers aren’t always leaving a good impression either.
Employers are love bombing and then ghosting candidates, bait and switching, and misrepresenting their companies’ cultures to eager job seekers, according to a new report. But such actions aren’t just bad for the candidate — they’re also bad for the employer, since they’re upping their odds of hiring the wrong person for the role.
Love bombing is a term used to describe when a person uses excessive flattery and demonstrations of attention and affection to manipulate the person they’re in a relationship with. Psychologists have described the technique as a form of emotional abuse. But it’s now crossing into the workplace, with candidates saying they feel they’re getting similar treatment from hiring managers, according to a new report.
More than half of job seekers have been “love bombed” during interviews, where they are showered with praise only to be lowballed with a salary offer or title not aligned with their experience, according to a new Greenhouse survey including over 1,000 respondents. In some cases they’re getting love bombed and then ghosted — never to hear from the interviewer again despite feeling like the top candidate.
Experts say many of these behaviors by hiring managers can be unintentional. Nevertheless, candidates are still taking to channels like Glassdoor to warn others about their poor interview experiences.
They’re also going through lengthy interview processes, sometimes requiring take-home assignments, with more than half of applicants saying they’ve been frustrated after investing considerable time in a multi-stage interview only to be rejected.
“I think that companies at this moment are hiring with the idea that they have the upper hand in the engagement in the conversation. It’s that sort of mindset that it’s almost like you need the job more than we need you to fill this job. I do think that that is the attitude that colors some of these activities,” said Carin Van Vuuren, chief marketing officer at Greenhouse.
Another issue is bait-and-switching with job scopes, where the responsibilities originally advertised changed for candidates who were hired once they started the role. About half of job seekers in the Greenhouse survey said they’ve experienced this.
This isn’t necessarily done intentionally or in bad faith though. “It takes a lot of time and effort to create very specific job descriptions and get them graded appropriately. And so there definitely are instances where companies will use a more generic job description for a role, but there may be various ways that that role is played out inside of the company,” said Shayna Royal, director of talent acquisition at HR software firm Paycor.
“There is definitely a lot of chance for misunderstandings or maybe an omission of communicating things. I don’t think it’s intentional though because I do think it’s very obvious that doesn’t benefit anyone,” Royal said. Paycor is in the process of developing some day-in-the-life videos to be included with its job postings and descriptions to give a more accurate picture of the role, responsibilities and expectations, Royal said.
“Making sure that they’re not glossing over a position and how difficult some of the aspects might be or what some of the challenges are — a good recruiter is one that will really face those square on and say it upfront and explain,” she said.
One tip for employers is to think about how to express the culture of the team they’re hiring for rather than the culture of the larger organization, as they may not be entirely the same, she said.
But one of the biggest consequences of these poor hiring practices today is that candidates are now sharing their experiences on channels like Glassdoor to warn others about what they’ve gone through.
“Companies underestimate the impact of this kind of behavior, on how an individual feels about that company and what they will do about it. I think companies also underestimate how much homework candidates are doing these days, when they’re looking for their next opportunity,” said Van Vuuren.
“Candidates have little hesitation and a lot of power to communicate their poor experience. They will put it on LinkedIn, or Glassdoor, they will tell others, and the employer brand of that company suffers through the actions of one or two individuals.”
Greenhouse’s survey also found that nearly 90% of job seekers would think twice before applying to a company after seeing or hearing negative information about the overall brand and culture.
Investing in employer branding is a big trend across the talent acquisition market today, Royal said, as companies continue trying to attract the best talent and those with new and specific skill sets. “And so as they do that, they have to be able to respond to some of those poor practices,” she said.