Ontario’s 45-Day Interview Notice Rule: Employer Guide

July is peak out-of-office season. Auto-replies are up, Slack statuses say, "back Monday," and somewhere in every hiring pipeline, a candidate is staring at their inbox wondering if anyone's coming back to them at all.

Silence is the most expensive thing an employer does all summer, and most don't even see the invoice.

There are two kinds of silence I keep running into with clients right now. Both have a dollar figure attached.

Silence #1: The candidate who never hears back.

61% of job seekers report being ghosted after an interview, and that number keeps climbing year over year. It's not just bad manners anymore. As of January 1, 2026, Ontario employers with 25+ employees are legally required to tell every candidate interviewed for a publicly advertised job whether a hiring decision has been made, within 45 days of their last interview. This obligation applies whether you've made a decision or not; "still deciding" counts as an answer.

🧮 Do the summer math: final interviews in June, "let's regroup in September," and you've blown past day 45 before Labour Day.

It goes beyond compliance risk. 52% of job seekers have declined a job offer outright because of a poor candidate experience, meaning some of this silence is costing you people. 

Silence #2: The "it's just seasonal, the paperwork can wait" assumption.

A Windsor-area temporary help agency and its director found out this spring that seasonal doesn't mean exempt. Following a Ministry of Labour investigation into unpaid minimum wage and termination pay, the agency was fined $100,000, and its director personally fined another $50,000, plus a 25% victim surcharge, for ignoring repayment orders under the ESA. 

The ESA doesn't carve out an exception for a role that lasts eight weeks instead of eight years. Seasonal and temporary hires are still entitled to written terms of employment before day one (if you have 25+ employees), the same 45-day interview disclosure clock, minimum wage, overtime, and vacation pay. And if you're hiring through an agency, their violations can still land on your brand's doorstep.

Why This Bites Hardest in July and August

Two things collide every summer: hiring volume goes up (seasonal and student roles), and internal bandwidth goes down (vacations, skeleton crews, "I'll deal with it when I'm back"). That's exactly the gap where compliance deadlines and candidate follow-ups quietly slip.

The Fix Isn't Complicated

Before anyone on your hiring team leaves for vacation, decide who owns candidate communication in their absence. If there's no decision yet, say so! "We're still deciding; here's our timeline" satisfies the law and keeps candidates from disappearing on you. And if you're bringing on seasonal staff this summer, treat the paperwork with the same seriousness as a permanent hire: written terms before day one, and a clear record of who's tracking each candidate's 45-day clock.

A Few Numbers Worth Sitting With

·       61% of candidates report being ghosted post-interview; some 2026 tracking puts the broader ghosting rate closer to 62%, with average employer response windows stretching past 68 days.

·       52% of candidates have turned down an offer because of a bad hiring experience.

·       Employers with strong candidate-facing reputations see roughly 50% lower cost-per-hire, meaning the silence isn't neutral; it's actively making your next hire more expensive.

·       $150,000: what one Ontario temp agency and its director personally paid for treating seasonal worker pay as an afterthought.

Let's Chat 💬

If you're not 100% sure your hiring process meets the 2026 rules, or if "seasonal hire" has become code for "we'll figure out the paperwork later," let's run a quick check before your next posting goes live.

Drop me a line at anna@humanizehr.ca or call 647-291-5741. No strings attached, just a real conversation.

Be Well and Stay Human 💙