When candidates ghost your hiring process before the first interview, it’s easy to blame the job market. But what if the real problem is trust?
In this episode of Workfluencer, we’re joined by Meghan Cantrell, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at OxBlue, who shares how she tackled candidate ghosting head-on by turning hiring managers into video creators. With no production budget and no marketing team, Meghan used short, authentic hiring manager videos to boost skills assessment completions by 40%, speed up interviews, and land high-converting hires—including a million-dollar rookie.
If you're in recruiting, employer branding, or talent strategy, this episode is packed with scrappy, repeatable ideas to help your candidates engage before the first call—and help your hiring managers become your strongest content allies.
In this episode, we cover:
00:00 Introduction 02:50 – What candidates and hiring managers were experiencing 06:15 – The lightbulb moment: “What if they met the hiring manager first… through video?” 08:00 – Getting hiring managers to agree (and why scripts didn’t work) 10:20 – Tools, tactics, and keeping it scrappy 13:35 – The impact: 40% increase in assessment completions 17:00 – What kinds of videos to create: welcome, training, culture, mental health 18:40 – How video shifted hiring manager relationships and built buy-in 20:30 – Tips for working with Legal and Marketing 24:30 – First steps for recruiters ready to try this 26:45 – Plead the Fifth: Agency trauma, BS job specs, and recruiter intuition 31:00 – Next-level idea: Prepping candidates with second-tier questions
Meghan Cantrell is the Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at OxBlue, where she leads hiring strategies across tech, sales, and support functions. Known for her candidate-first mindset and innovative use of video in the hiring process, Meghan has transformed how her team builds trust and accelerates hiring—even in a noisy, competitive market.
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hiring manager video content, candidate ghosting ,video in recruiting, talent acquisition strategy, how to engage candidates, recruiting video ideas, employer branding tactics, assessment completion rate recruiting, authentic hiring manager videos, candidate trust and engagement
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