UNLEASH America: How are HR leaders love bombing, catfishing, and ghosting employees?

There’s not many times the words ‘dating’ and ‘HR’ fit seamlessly in a sentence together, but at UNLEASH America 2024, the two certainly found common ground.

And that’s just one of the many great aspects of UNLEASH America – the speakers share their expertise in new and unconventional ways, to frame even HR’s toughest problems in a more digestible, manageable light. 

This is exactly what Davita Carpenter, VP, Human Resources at HcaHealthcare and Jon Stross, Co-founder and President at Greenhouse achieved through their sessions; both speakers explained why the dating process is somewhat like the business world.

Don’t see it yourself? Well, let us explain what they said.

Your company’s website is a dating profile

Opening her session, Carpenter asked the audience to raise their hand if they’ve updated their company website in the last six months. 

A scatter of hands were lifted. 

You want to look at your website to make sure that all the information that you’re presenting is true because when somebody comes into the company and those things are not accurate anymore – it’s catfishing,” shared Carpenter.

She used the example of revenue. “If your website is advertising that it made $1 billion last year, but this year it suffered a massive loss so it’s no longer a billion-dollar business, anyone who visits your website is being catfished because the information it’s presenting simply is not true anymore.”

This, Carpenter says, is particularly important because when employees realize that they’ve been misled about a company, it impacts their trust levels.

One way to achieve this is by setting core missions and values, explaining, “unless they resonate with employees, they’re useless.”

But she also flipped the script, explaining that sometimes, websites miss off important information that should be shouted about, but is often missed off.

“If you have people on your board of directors that have great achievements, make sure your website doesn’t just have their pictures and names,” she advises.

“Your website is your dating profile; it’s how you attract talent to your organization. If you have some badass people sitting on your board, literally put it out there!”

Improving transparency in job descriptions and interview processes

Once a candidate has been attracted to a business’s website (aka their dating profile) the next stage is to read a job description – which also leaves room for ambiguity.

Similar to Carpenter’s idea of catfishing, at UNLEASH America 2024 Stross shared that 53% of employees feel that the description for their job did not match the current duties in their role – with some workers stating it changed “significantly”. 

The same figure also represented the number of candidates that reported receiving flattery or excessive praise during the interview process, only to be given a salary and title that doesn’t match their skills, knowledge and experience. 

This, Stross explained, is a form of ‘love bombing’, which, in the dating scene, is defined as “an attempt to influence another person with over-the-top displays of attention and affection.”

You should know what your job is,” Carpenter expressed at UNLEASH America, “but if it’s not clear, the business is failing its employees.”

To overcome this, she ensures that before HcaHealthcare posts a job description – whether that be for a new position or to replace an employee who has handed in their notice – the wording is thoroughly checked to ensure it still accurately matches the required duties. 

“When I hear employees say ‘my job description doesn’t reflect half of what I do’, I find it disrespectful,” she says. “That’s why I want to make sure our employees feel this job is reflective of what they signed up for.”

Similarly, Stross shared that 52% of candidates report being ‘ghosted’ during the interview process, which, although doesn’t sound too healthy, it actually represents a 22% decrease from last year.

What’s even more shocking, is that up to 22% of jobs on the market are ‘ghost jobs’, meaning they’re already filled, or, even non-existent. This, of course, means that candidates applying for these roles are wasting their time and energy, which will likely cause them to feel burnt out and fatigued. 

But for candidates that are applying for legitimate roles, Stross shared that around 31% don’t receive a rejection notice, whereas 79% said they would reapply for the same company if they were provided with feedback.

On the other hand, Greenhouse found that one in every five candidates have rejected an offer due to a poor interview experience, with 54% facing discriminatory interview questions. What’s most alarming about this, however, is the latter statistic has increased by 20% over the past 12 months. 

Interview questions around age, race and gender were most likely to be discriminatory. To overcome this, Stross suggested having a structured that HR leaders implement an interview process that reduces the risk of interviewers going off script, ensuring all candidates receive an equitable experience. 

And for Carpenter, this boils down to one key word: communication.

If you’re in a romantic relationship and there’s no two-way communication, you’ll feel like your partner doesn’t care,” she said.  “Employment is no different.” 

“To show your business cares, promote employee benefit programs, for example, and share data and information that will actually help individuals do their jobs better,” continued Carpenter.

“It’s also important to celebrate the little things – it’s all about showing that commitment to someone.

“And businesses should be the same. At HcaHealthcare, we celebrate everything we can – such as anniversaries, Pride Month and Women’s Month to show we care.” 

Concluding, Carpenter shared two pieces of advice: “Continue to court your talent and reap the reward from their investment.

“And don’t forget to put a ring on it!”