CXR Foundation Proposes Baseline Standard: Tell Every Applicant When They're Out
The News
Gerry Crispin, founder of the CareerXRoads talent acquisition community, is leading a CXR Foundation committee that has developed a proposed Baseline Standard for Applicant Closure. The standard requires employers to provide clear, documented communication to every applicant when they are no longer under consideration — covering 100% of candidates regardless of volume. Ghosting is explicitly prohibited, and the classic 'we will contact you if we are interested' response is deemed insufficient. The standard also requires that every system of record capture timestamps for five stages: initial submission, automated screening or AI evaluation, human review, final disposition decision, and closure communication. The drafters are seeking 100 signatures by end of July and 1,000 by end of 2026. Ontario already requires certain employers to notify interviewed candidates within 45 days, and the standard aims to define a practical baseline before governments impose their own.
Why It Matters
Candidate ghosting is the open secret of high-volume recruiting. Most TA leaders know it happens and most have made peace with it as an unavoidable cost of processing thousands of applications. Crispin's standard challenges that directly: if your ATS can send automated rejection emails — and virtually all can — the reason candidates aren't being closed is configuration choice, not technical limitation. The five-stage timestamp requirement is the sharper edge. Most ATSs record submission and disposition but not the intermediate steps, particularly AI evaluation and human review timestamps. If this standard gains traction — or if governments adopt something like it — the audit trail gap becomes a compliance gap.
Taking Action
All action is situated in your corporate context. These are starting points, not prescriptions — choose what fits.
Connect
Who to talk with in your enterprise
Your ATS administrator. Ask whether your current configuration allows applicants to remain unresolved indefinitely, and how many candidates in your system have no closure status after 30, 60, or 90 days. Your head of employer brand. Ghosting is a brand liability. Candidates who are never told they're rejected don't quietly disappear — they post about it, and they don't apply again. Connect your closure rates to your re-application and Glassdoor review data.
Inspect
What to take a closer look at
Pull a report from your ATS showing the percentage of applicants from the last 90 days who have a recorded disposition status. Anything below 80% is a problem. Then check whether your system can produce the five timestamps the CXR standard requires — particularly the gap between automated screening and human review. If it can't, that's a configuration or vendor conversation you need to start now, not when a regulator asks for it.
Reflect
What to think about more deeply
If Ontario can require closure within 45 days and your ATS can send automated emails, what exactly is stopping you from closing every candidate — other than the quiet assumption that people you've already rejected don't matter?