Why Last-Minute Candidate Withdrawals Hurt: A Hiring Manager's Plea for Honesty

Recruiting is an everyday job for me and many other hiring leaders like me.

I see candidates clearing interviews, negotiating offers, accepting offers, completing H1B processing in premium, providing a joining date, and then sending an email two days before the joining date to inform that they are joining another company.

The Cost of Last-Minute Candidate Withdrawals

Dear candidates, all this comes at a cost - the cost of losing trust with hiring managers and the company, the cost of wasted time for not selecting other deserving candidates who could have joined us, the hours spent on interviews, writing feedback, and making hiring decisions, obtaining approval from management, collaborating with lawyers for H1B premium processing, coordinating with IT and other departments for onboarding, and planning projects for you.

Conclusion

Bottom line: please refrain from accepting an offer if you do not intend to join. It is neither professional nor ethical.

I understand your concern, but you haven't mentioned anything that truly matters to the candidate. Why would they care about your "trust," cost, or any of those factors if they believe they won't meet or need you again? I'm curious about what measures you have taken to prevent this issue.

Review Your Recruitment Policy

Go back to basics and conduct a complete review of your recruitment policy. Poor recruitment is a significant reason for high attrition rates. Your policy is obviously lacking in many areas.

I have posted many times in this forum on recruitment. Please use the search facility to find my posts.

No organization can hope to succeed without a comprehensive and robust recruitment policy in place, with every staff member on board and consistently following it to the letter. Make no mistake, this approach works. I proved it time and time again during my working life, particularly in reducing attrition and recruiting long-term employees.

Consider Salary and Entitlements

Allied to recruitment are, of course, salary, entitlements, and how you treat the staff. If those things are lacking, then you are doomed. People have got to WANT to work for your organization and to know they will be treated well.