Over the years I have heard the full range of reasons for people not arriving on time or turning up late for interviews. Issues with pets, leaking washing machines, keys locked in cars and accidents and emergencies of all kinds. Many are, of course, entirely genuine and many are not, but I’ve noticed another thing on the increase and it’s not a very good sign at all – interview no-shows.

At 6Talent we take a lot of time to contact candidates and make sure they are still fully committed to the role they have applied for and ready for their interview. We have some fabulous roles that we are hiring for and we make this very clear to candidates. We call them the day before the interview in many cases, too, just to be on the safe side. But then they don’t turn up and, in many cases, don’t even have the decency to let us know.

Do these people actually want jobs or are they playing the system? Is it too easy for them to stay in bed rather than work? Why does this happen so much? Is my telephone technique losing its touch? Who knows. But what I do know is that this is a very sad and disappointing trend. Life for candidates is not going to get any easier as we see growth in many markets and competition for roles gets tougher. 

What can be done to reverse this trend? One idea mentioned was to take deposits for interview slots that are refunded when you show up. I just might have to start doing this and use the (sadly inevitable) profits for the Christmas party.