5 tips to reduce no-shows

3 minute read

Posted by Emily Hill on 25 April 2024

No-shows disrupt the hiring process, waste valuable internal resources, and frustrate the hiring team.

In this article, we explain what a no-show is and share five actionable tips to reduce your no-show rate.

What do we mean by ‘no-shows’?

A ‘no-show’ occurs when a candidate fails to attend a scheduled interview, assessment, orientation session, or work, without prior notice.

The industry average no-show rate during interviews and assessments usually falls between 10% and 30%. However, the prevalence of one-click apply options has led to an increase in the number of no-shows, presenting a more common headache for recruiters.

Many recruiters are now turning to ThriveMap for assistance in reducing this costly issue.

Five tips to help you to reduce no-shows:

1. Use pre-hire assessments…
  1. For entry-level, high volume and frontline roles, incorporate a pre-hire assessment into your recruitment process to screen candidates. This helps to ensure that any candidates who are going through to the next stage in the recruitment process are actually serious about the role.

2. … But make the pre-hire assessment realistic

Over 50% of new hires quit because the role doesn’t match their expectations. Realistic Job Assessments give candidates a “day in the life” experience of the role. Highlighting job responsibilities, work environment, and company culture helps manage candidate expectations and improves engagement throughout the recruitment process and beyond. This also has the added benefit of encouraging candidates to opt-out if they think that the role is not going to be a good fit – reducing no-shows.

Bridge the gap between candidate expectations and job realities, reducing attrition rates and minimising the likelihood of no-shows.

3. Make pre-hire questions job relevant and skills based

No shows are more likely if the candidates experience an average or poor touchpoint. Stand out in the hiring process by asking job relevant questions. Starting with job analysis, understand the real skills, challenges and scenarios that are required. By getting candidates to really think about the role as part of their application process, you build your brand culture and interest in the role – reducing no shows.

4. Act quickly
  1. With accelerated hiring timelines becoming the norm, speed is crucial to minimise no-show rates.
  2. Ensure you incorporate tools to accelerate candidate evaluations. ThriveMap’s candidate selection tools make it easy to understand how suitable candidates are for a role – at scale, quickly. This helps to accelerate candidate evaluations and streamline decision-making, relieving the burden on hiring teams and leads to faster, more accurate hiring.

5. Optimise communication

  1. Clear and effective communication is essential in reducing no-show rates. Send timely confirmation emails, offer flexibility, and provide candidates with detailed instructions for interviews or assessments. By proactively engaging with candidates and addressing their concerns, you can enhance their commitment to attending scheduled appointments. Learn more about designing a best practice pre-hire process here.

By implementing these tips, recruitment teams can effectively reduce no-show rates, streamline the hiring process, and attract top talent to their organisations. Investing in a comprehensive pre-hire assessment strategy and prioritising candidate experience and communication are key steps toward achieving success in recruitment.

Get a demo of ThriveMap’s pre-hire assessment tools, understand our process, and get a plan to improve all your crucial hiring metrics: thrivemap.io/demo/

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About ThriveMap

ThriveMap creates customised assessments for high volume roles, which take candidates through an online “day in the life” experience of work in your company. Our assessments have been proven to reduce staff turnover, reduce time to hire, and improve quality of hire.

Not sure what type of assessment is right for your business? Read our guide.

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