Best Practices When Making an Offer to a Candidate
Don’t make a mistake now! You are so close to a YES!
Making an offer often seems like a formality to many companies. They have done all the hard lifting and found a great candidate. Historically, a short phone call telling them an offer is coming by email has worked because “the candidate is so lucky to get a job offer from our company! Of course they will take it!”
However, the world has changed. The way you offer is critically important not only to you getting the candidate you want, but to ensure a great beginning to their work days with you.
Call the candidate with excitement!
The hiring manager (or CEO if appropriate) needs to call the candidate with excitement! This is the moment that the candidate has been waiting for, and it's important to create a positive and enthusiastic experience for them. By conveying your excitement and interest in the candidate, you are more likely to create a positive impression and increase the likelihood of acceptance.
Say something like this:
“Emily, we are so excited to offer you the position of senior accountant. We have looked at over 130 resumes and interviewed many candidates for this position. We spent days figuring out exactly what we needed in this job, and then we found you. We believe that you will be not only exactly what we were looking for skill wise - but your attitude and energy are just what will make you a great fit. We will follow up today with an offer in writing but we really hope you will say yes!”
Put an offer in writing that same day
The offer should come on the same day and preferably within an hour of the phone call (not before the phone call - that is not recommended at all!). This provides the candidate with the necessary details regarding the offer, such as salary, benefits, start date, and other relevant information. This also shows the candidate that you are organized, professional, and value their time.
Meet or exceed their salary expectations
Don't offer less than they thought was coming. If you have discussed salary expectations with the candidate or posted a range, it's important to ensure that the offer meets or exceeds their expectations. Offering less than what they anticipated can create a negative impression and may cause the candidate to reconsider their interest in the position. Even if they take the job at the lesser rate, you have communicated to them that they weren’t even good enough for the lower end of the range and you will be starting off poorly. If you don’t give them the highest end of the range, you will need to explain why they aren’t good enough for that, and again this may not sit well with them. It’s better to make them excited with the salary - this is not the economy for a salary negotiation. Candidates don’t want to engage like that anymore. So give them a fair, expected salary.
Keep communicating!
If there is much time between offer acceptance and start, continue to communicate with the candidate. This can include sending them a company t-shirt, newsletter, or welcome emails from staff. This helps to keep the candidate engaged and excited about the opportunity to work with your organization and may squash any other offers that may be coming in behind yours. Surprise and delight them with gifts, communication, excitement from current team members, etc. It doesn’t cost much - but is important if there is more than a couple of weeks prior to their start date.
In summary, these 4 simple actions can make a HUGE difference in the result. As you look back at your last hire - is there any improvement you need to make? It sounds like FLUFF and unimportant - but the result of not doing these things might mean starting the recruiting process all over again when your candidate starts with another company. Let’s not let that happen.
As always, we would love to talk to you about your hiring process. We coach our clients through every step when we work with them in recruiting. It’s just part of what we do and why our clients like to work with us! Our survey scores are 5 out of 5 on the client and candidate side. We know that sounds like bragging, and it is. Hiring and HR is what we do best!