A new law compelling employers to feedback to interviewees is set to significantly alter hiring practices. This change addresses the rising concern about job applicants being “ghosted” after interviews, a situation many job seekers globally are familiar with.
Take the case of Laura Gemma Bond, a marketing professional with over a decade of experience. After three job interviews in London, she returned to Cambridge expecting a call that never came. Despite investing time and money into the process, she received no response. “It’s rude, it’s unprofessional, and it’s unacceptable,” commented Bond, whose job search updates on TikTok have garnered over 2.3 million views.
Ghosting job candidates isn’t rare. A 2025 study by hiring platform Greenhouse revealed that 63% of job seekers in the UK and Ireland have experienced it.
However, Ontario, Canada, has chosen to legislate against this practice. With changes to the Employment Standards Act, companies with more than 25 employees must notify candidates within 45 days of their final interview if they’ve been successful or not. Failure to do so may result in fines up to CA $100,000 (~£50,000). This law came into effect in January.
Allison Venditti, the Toronto-based founder of the Moms at Work network and a supporter of the legislation, expressed disbelief over the need for such laws: “As an HR professional, I cannot believe we have to legislate basic good behavior. If someone applies for a job, gets an interview, and spends all that time on it, companies should let them know what’s going on.”
Ontario’s law also mandates employers to reveal salary ranges in job ads, a move advocates believe could restore trust in recruitment. Danielle McConville, vice president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific at Greenhouse, noted that ghosting undermines trust in employers and harms their reputation.
“While anti-ghosting regulations like those in Canada could help establish a baseline standard, the real solution is a human-centric approach that ensures fair, respectful, and structured hiring practices,” she said.
However, some employer groups caution that legislating communication in recruitment could create administrative burdens, especially for companies conducting large hiring rounds with hundreds of applicants. Critics argue that the rule might simply prompt automated rejection emails rather than improving the quality of feedback candidates receive. It should be noted that ghosting can also occur from the jobseeker’s end, with candidates occasionally withdrawing from recruitment processes without notice.
In the UK, the tightening job market, coupled with slowing wage growth and high unemployment, have led some job applicants to submit hundreds of applications before landing a job. It’s not unheard of for candidates to apply for up to 600 roles before receiving an offer.
Given this climate, there are growing calls for legislation similar to Ontario’s to be implemented elsewhere. A petition has been initiated on the UK government and parliament website demanding a legal requirement for employers to respond to interviewees, although it had only amassed 98 signatures at the time of writing.
Jessica Ciccozzi, founder of the Australian executive advisory from East Executive, believes this could pave the way for accountability measures in one jurisdiction to influence practices elsewhere.
