Candidate ghosting is incredibly frustrating.
So is investing time in an application or several interviews, only to hear nothing from the company. Ghosting is not confined to one participant in the hiring process, and neither is the responsibility for improving communication.
In iHire’s 2025 State of Online Recruiting Report, 50.7% of employers surveyed named candidate ghosting as one of their biggest online recruiting challenges. Meanwhile, 59% of job seekers said applying for roles and not hearing back was a top frustration.
This article focuses on why candidates go quiet, but the same standard applies to the business doing the hiring. If you want people to be candid and communicative with you, they need to know they will receive the same in return.
You can have a promising first conversation, several positive interviews and every reason to believe someone is interested, only for their replies to slow down or stop altogether.
Sometimes there is no useful explanation. But in a senior search, the silence often follows something: the process lost momentum, the role became less clear, an important detail appeared late or another opportunity moved ahead.
This matters even more when you have approached someone who was not actively looking. You are asking them to consider leaving a role, team and reputation they have spent years building. Their interest cannot be taken for granted once they agree to an initial conversation.
You won’t prevent every candidate from disappearing. But if the people you most want to hire keep going quiet at the same point, there is probably something in the process to examine.
WHERE SENIOR SEARCHES START TO LOSE PEOPLE
- The pace changed
A promising first interview can lose its effect when the next stage takes too long to materialize.
The problem is not always the length of the process. Senior searches rarely move in a perfectly straight line. Board schedules clash, founders travel, investors want input and internal decisions take longer than expected.
The problem is uncertainty.
A candidate may leave an interview feeling positive and expecting an update on Friday. When Friday passes without one, they begin to wonder whether the business has lost interest, another candidate has moved ahead or decisions are always this difficult internally.
In the same iHire research, 60.5% of candidates said seeing an anticipated hiring timeline would make them more likely to apply for a role.
You don’t need to manufacture urgency or promise dates you cannot meet. You do need to set expectations and explain when they change. A quick note saying the next conversation will need to wait until two board members are back is far better than leaving someone to decide what the silence means.
- They heard three versions of the same job
This comes up often in growing wellness brands.
The founder wants someone strategic. The COO needs a leader who will stay close to day-to-day execution. The board is focused on expansion. Then another conversation introduces a turnaround, a new market or a team that needs rebuilding.
The business may need all of those things. But if no one has agreed on what matters most, the candidate hears a different job every time someone new joins the conversation.
Senior wellness roles naturally cover a lot of ground. A Head of Growth may touch marketing, partnerships and membership. An operations leader may oversee new openings, customer experience and regional teams. That breadth can be attractive when the priorities are clear.
Be specific about what this person will own first, which decisions will sit with them and what you expect them to have changed six or twelve months into the role.
If those answers keep shifting, the candidate may conclude that the business has not yet decided what it needs.
- Something important arrived too late
Compensation is the obvious example, but it could also be travel, location, reporting line, equity, weekend expectations or the size of the team.
Someone can care deeply about a wellness brand and still decide that the economics or practicalities of the move do not work. People build careers in this sector because they care about doing something meaningful and full of purpose. They also have mortgages, families, financial goals and careers they have spent years building.
Not every detail needs to be settled during the first conversation. But anything that could make the opportunity unworkable should not be saved until the final stage.
When a significant trade-off appears late, some candidates will say no. Others will struggle to say it and begin drifting away.
The earlier those realities enter the conversation, the easier it is for everyone to make a clear decision.
- They stopped feeling wanted
You can work hard to get someone excited about an opportunity, then make the process feel very different once interviews begin.
If every conversation becomes an assessment, with little feedback, context or encouragement from the hiring team, candidates may start questioning how interested the business is in them.
Experienced leaders are evaluating the move throughout the process. They may be leaving a team they trust, a business they understand and a role where they have already built credibility. If you are asking them to join a smaller wellness brand or a growing company, they need enough access and information to build confidence in that decision.
Keep the communication open. Share useful feedback, make introductions when they would help and tell candidates when something in their experience has stood out.
If all the energy appears to be coming from them, their interest will eventually reflect that.
- Saying no feels harder than disappearing
Turning down a role can be uncomfortable, especially after several positive conversations with a founder or leadership team.
People may worry about damaging the relationship. They may struggle to explain that the compensation is too low, the scope no longer feels right or another opportunity has become more attractive.
Silence can feel easier than an awkward conversation. The longer someone delays saying no, the harder it becomes to return and explain what changed.
You can make that conversation easier by giving candidates permission to be open throughout the search. Ask whether anything has changed for them and make it clear that a no is still a useful answer.
You may be disappointed, but you will know where you stand and can move forward without spending another week chasing a reply.
MAKE IT EASIER TO SAY WHAT HAS CHANGED
If you want candidates to speak openly, that openness has to be mutual.
A quick check-in after each stage can reveal whether a concern has surfaced, another opportunity has moved ahead or the role feels different now that they know more.
A small change in the question can produce a very different conversation.
“You’re still interested, right?” leaves little room for anything other than yes.
“Has anything changed for you after today’s conversation?” makes it much easier for someone to tell you what they are thinking.
Sometimes you will hear something you can clarify around scope, compensation, reporting lines or travel. Sometimes the role simply no longer feels right. Either answer gives you something useful to work with and saves everyone from days of unanswered follow-ups.
The rest comes down to a few consistent habits:
Set expectations early. Explain the stages, who candidates will meet and roughly when decisions will be made.
Keep the brief consistent. Everyone involved should be aligned on the scope, reporting line, priorities and reason for the hire.
Bring the trade-offs forward. Compensation, travel, flexibility, equity and expectations are easier to discuss early than near the offer.
Stay in touch when there is nothing new to report. “We’re still waiting for Thursday’s board meeting” is still an update.
Ask what has changed. Give people room to raise concerns rather than assuming their interest is exactly where it started.
Close the loop. If you decide against someone, tell them. The right person for another role six months from now may be sitting in today’s shortlist.
You will never eliminate ghosting completely. But silence is not a particularly useful data point on its own. A pattern is.
If talented people keep disappearing at the same stage, look at what happened just before it. Was there a long gap, new information, a change in the role or a conversation that left something unresolved?
Those clues can tell you far more than another unanswered email.
A GOOD SOUL SEARCH MAKES ROOM FOR AN HONEST NO
A great search process doesn't mean you have to persuade every candidate to stay in the process. It means you are giving people enough clarity, access and honesty to make the right decision—including when that decision is no.
A thoughtful no protects the relationship. A drawn-out maybe wastes everyone’s time
Are the people you’re hoping to hire going quiet halfway through the conversation?
Good Soul Hunting works with wellness and fitness brands to run senior searches with clearer communication, stronger candidate engagement and fewer surprises along the way.
Talk to us if you’d like a fresh pair of eyes on where your search may be losing people.
Work with us