You’ve been recruiting for weeks (often months) and now you’ve found the perfect candidate. They ‘fit’ have the skills and they’re motivated to join your business.
Now’s time to make the offer. So, what do you consider when doing this and what’s the best way to go about it? You want to maximise the chance of them accepting your offer, and to do that there’s plenty of things that can help.
Having recruited for 15 years I’ve seen a lot of offers rejected for numerous reasons. Here’s a few tips to maximise your chances of them accepting and not even entertaining a counter offer.
1. Don’t low ball it. Offer a salary you know they will accept. If you’re working with a recruiter, find out what they need to accept early in the process. If it’s too much move on. If not, don’t lowball them – it’s a huge turn-off.
2. Move fast. If you found the person, cancel other interviews and make the offer, get them off the market as soon as possible. Put yourself in their shoes – the longer they’re kept waiting the more their inner chimp tells them “they clearly don’t want you, they’d have called sooner”. Don’t make it an uphill climb.
3. Make it an event. Bring them in if you can or at the least call them personally and tell them. Don’t send a letter or delegate it. The enthusiastic, personal touch has a huge impact and makes the recipient feel wanted. Nothing makes people think “I’m just another number” more than a generic welcome letter with no thought put into it.
4. Re-state their importance and the impact they will have. Make them feel important, wanted and valued.
5. Big up the benefits. If you have awesome benefits shout about them. Give them examples of how they positively affect your life. Eg. “There’s an awesome healthcare policy which gives you peace of mind that, should anything happen, you’ll get the help you need.”
Hope it helps.
