When silence becomes a signal.
Silent rejection. Ghosting. No closure. No outcome. Different words for the same candidate experience: a hiring process appears to end without the candidate being told what happened. Shortlistr measures this in two different ways.
Silent Rejection Rate
Measures confirmed candidate outcomes. A candidate is only counted as ghosted when they explicitly tell Shortlistr that this happened. Silence alone does not automatically increase the rate.
Silent Rejection Risk Rating
Looks at observable hiring behaviour to identify whether the likelihood of silent rejection appears to be increasing. It does not say that candidates have been ghosted.
They are related, but they are not the same metric.
One measures outcomes. One measures risk. The diagram below makes the distinction clear in a few seconds.
Don’t confuse the two.
How often candidates confirm they were ghosted
The Silent Rejection Rate, or SRR, measures confirmed candidate outcomes. A candidate is only counted as ghosted when they explicitly tell Shortlistr that this happened. Silence alone does not automatically increase the rate.
What counts as a confirmed silent rejection?
A candidate can confirm they were ghosted through one of three paths:
Marking their journey as ghosted in their Candidate Tracker
Submitting a stage review with a ghosted outcome
Confirming “Yes” through Shortlistr’s 30-day follow-up
Only journeys that reached recruiter screen or later are included. Applications that never progressed beyond “Applied” are excluded.
The calculation
The metric looks across a rolling 12-month period, based on the candidate’s last meaningful contact with the hiring organisation.
Spotting the warning signs before silence becomes an outcome
The Silent Rejection Risk Score, or SRRS, is different. It does not say that candidates have been ghosted. Instead, it looks at observable hiring behaviour to identify whether the likelihood of silent rejection appears to be increasing.
The score considers five signals:
More recent behaviour carries greater weight, so the score responds to changes in the candidate experience rather than permanently reflecting older history.
Silence is a signal. It isn’t automatically ghosting.
A candidate journey that has gone quiet for 30 days does not automatically increase an organisation’s Silent Rejection Rate. Instead, prolonged silence can contribute to the Silent Rejection Risk Score. Before that silence is treated as a risk signal, Shortlistr also checks whether the candidate is still active on-platform. This helps distinguish between the hiring organisation going silent and the candidate simply disengaging from their search or the platform. Only a candidate-confirmed outcome contributes to the Silent Rejection Rate.
Silence can increase risk. Only confirmation increases the rate.
The Silent Rejection Risk Score is displayed in five bands:
A risk band requires at least 3 candidate journeys. A numeric score requires at least 5 journeys.
Risk isn’t assessed in isolation. Shortlistr compares behavioural signals against relevant peer groups so that a hiring process is viewed in context.
This helps reduce the likelihood that a small number of unusual journeys disproportionately influence the score.
Candidates told us they were ghosted.
The hiring behaviour suggests ghosting may be more likely.
Silence can increase risk. Only confirmation increases the rate.
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