You’ve just completed an exhaustive interview process with your candidate - a telephone screen, two personal interviews, reference checks, and the 30-60-90 day plan. You talked to the candidate on Friday, and they verbally accepted the position. “That all sounds great,” they said after hearing your verbal offer, “I look forward to reviewing your offer over the weekend.” You’re thrilled, because you’ve finally filled the most important open position in your company.
Then comes Monday. Your phone rings.
It’s your Dream Candidate: “Hi. You know, after talking over the offer with my family, I’m unfortunately going to have to decline.” You ask why. The candidate gives you some song-and-dance about this decision being the best thing for their family. You’re stunned - on Friday, everything was great. What the heck just happened?
When you get served with a healthy dose of “Monday Morning Surprise,” it means that you’ve failed to close your candidate before giving them the job offer. It happens to everyone, but it doesn’t have to happen as often. So, how do you avoid getting slammed with a last-minute offer rejection? To answer that question, let’s take a look at the most common reasons that candidates do a 180 on your job offer.
The Spouse. Spouses are the leading cause of death for great job offers. When I was a full-time executive recruiter, the most common reason cited for last-minute offer declines was the dreaded, “I talked it over with my husband/wife.” I remember one instance where the guy wanted to take the job, but the wife was skeptical about the viability of the company. I ended up on the phone with the wife for almost two hours. There is a better way to approach this problem. Simply ask your candidate, “have you talked about this job opportunity with your family?” during the first telephone interview, and again at the Work History Interview. If they say no, you have a problem. If they say yes, ask them what their family thought about their decision to explore other career possibilities. Act on the answer accordingly.
The Pay. Don’t put yourself in the situation where the first time you discuss money with the candidate is in the job offer, because you’re setting yourself up for disaster. That’s why I coach my clients to ask for the candidate’s “minimum acceptable compensation” waaaaay up front on the Career History Form (the job application). Why waste your time with someone who wants 30 grand a year more than you’re able to spend?
The Bennies. In today’s environment, health insurance and perks like a 401(k) match are huge factors in candidate’s career choices. The very best talent will work for employers who offer the broadest range of goodies. Make sure you understand which benefits are “must-haves” for your candidate. How? Ask them, “What benefits are must-haves for you? Any deal-breakers?” They’ll tell you what they expect, and you’ll avoid that awkward moment when the candidate tells you, “I don’t see tuition reimbursement on the offer letter.” If you don’t offer Tuition Reimbursement, and your candidate has another offer from a company who does, and it’s a hot-button issue for them…
The Other Company. Sometimes candidates have preferences that transcend basic comp and benefits. Maybe they’ll take a huge pay cut to work for Google. Maybe they’ve decided that any offer from Company X is better than your best offer. The point is, sometimes it doesn’t matter what you offer - if a person has decided that Company X is their end-all-be-all employer, then your offer is in bad shape. Wouldn’t you like to know this information up front? That’s why I ask the candidate, “what other job options are you taking a look at? How does our job rank in relation to the others? If Company X made you an offer that was identical to ours, which one would you take?” I ask those questions on the telephone screen.
These are some common sources of Last Minute Surprise. Now that you know how to uncover these four common landmines, you’ll start making offers to candidates with confidence!
Adam,
Great article and reminder that “the devil is in the details.” When we fail to ask ALL the questions (earlier the better), we risk having all our work blow up. As a retained recruiter for the last 19 years, I can personally attest that nothing can tarnish your credibility with a client then having their first choice candidate turn down an offer for reasons that were either unexpected or unknown.
Some where mid-way through the process, I always have a conversation that starts off with, “Lets role play for a moment. If my client were to extend you an offer, base on what you know now, is their anything that would keep you from accepting it?” That generally leads to a bunch of questions and suppositions. More importantly though, it quickly identifies what is really important to the candidate and if it is even a doable deal.
January 6th, 2009 at