Ghosting at work: As labour shortage persists, employers lament increasing no-shows
Global News
Some companies say they're stuck in a cycle of hiring and training.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Court Desautels had had a few job candidates ghost a job interview. But it was a very rare occurrence, with around 10 per cent of interviews ending up in a no-show, says Desautels, CEO of the Neighbourhood Group of Companies, which operates four restaurants in Guelph and Kitchener, Ont.
Now, though, the share of workers who will ditch the interview without notice is “easily up to least 30 per cent,” he says.
Speaking from Bar’kada, which serves tapas-like dishes in Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West, owner Jordan Rulloda says he’s locked in a constant cycle of hiring and training.
“We could get, say, 10 interviews confirmed via either email or phone and then two show up and then the ones that do come on board. Sometimes they come, maybe do one chef and then they’re gone,” says Rulloda, who also owns two other restaurants in Schomberg, Ont.
Workplace “ghosting,” where job candidates and new hires vanish without so much as a call or email, is the latest manifestation of the idiosyncratic labour market that has emerged as the Canadian economy recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s definitely a candidate’s market,” says Travis O’Rourke, president of Hays Canada, a recruiting agency.
Between April and June, the number of job vacancies in Canada hit a record 731,900, up 25 per cent from the same period two years earlier, before the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada.
The economy added 31,000 jobs in October, broadly in line with analysts’ expectations, bringing the national unemployment rate to a pandemic-era low of 6.7 per cent.