Stronger regulations at the provincial level surrounding Ontario employers’ publicly advertised job postings can prevent companies from ‘ghosting’ applicants and provide candidates with more transparency in the recruiting process, says Patricia Hewlin, professor of social organizational psychology at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
This year, Ontario is amending the Working for Workers Act to require employers to include expected salary ranges in job postings and disclose if artificial intelligence is used in the hiring process.
Legislation that requires employers to include salary ranges will make it easier for employees, current and prospective, to negotiate their salary, says Hewlin, noting it will add equity into the recruiting process. However, if an organization finds it has gender or racial discrepancies within its compensation structure across its workforce, it should develop a system to address those discrepancies before posting positions.
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Simply posting an extremely broad salary range isn’t the right answer because it could send the message that the employer doesn’t have a good grasp of the role’s responsibilities or isn’t sure of what it’s looking for in an ideal candidate, she says. It’s important for employers to have a clear, consistent idea of the role’s responsibilities and the years of experience or skills required to meet those responsibilities so they can find a standard salary range.
“Having that standardization will . . . be more equitable. . . . I’ve seen many situations in which employees think they know what the job entails and later discover that it entailed something else. . . . Having transparency in terms of job requirements [and] what’s expected of employees is critical, [so] people have the proper knowledge to be successful in their roles.”
As well, the province announced in May it’s planning to further amend the ESA to require larger employers to disclose in publicly advertised job postings whether or not a job vacancy exists and will require them to respond to any applicant interviewed.
The ‘Great Resignation’ that stemmed from the coronavirus pandemic led to many employers trying to get ahead of potential recruitment challenges by posting jobs before they were even available and without following up with candidates, says Hewlin. “I’ve received a lot of feedback from workers in general, when they’re going through the recruiting process about how the employers may not ever get back to them.”
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The issue also stems from the fact that many employers already know they’re planning to fill these roles internally but have been required to advertise them. “The challenge that I have with this is that there’s no follow up in many cases. And that’s just bad business. Whoever’s responsible for hiring [should get back] to the applicants, whether through AI-generated [responses] or not.”
Companies that ghost candidates could send the message to potential talent that the organization may not have the financial resources to properly follow up or doesn’t care to prioritize this part of the process. “That can be an organizational culture concern as well. How employers treat applicants can signal . . . whether or not [the] organization cares about [its workers].”
She suggests employers have a comprehensive recruitment process in place from beginning to end that outlines recruiting materials, which venues they’ll use for recruitment and guidelines around candidate selection that informs applicants whether or not they’ll be going further in the process. Employers can also develop a timetable for how long the process should take so they can ensure they’re responding to applicants in a timely manner.
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