How to On-Board Top Talent Successfully

When my wife and I bought our first house in 2002, it was right as housing prices in Southern California were starting to escalate rapidly. Fortunately, we got in before things got out of control. About two years after our date of purchase, our house had doubled in price. The skyrocketing prices eventually leveled out, but timing was critical for anyone who wanted to get into a decent house at a reasonable price. 

The housing market of 2002 reminds me of the job market of 2019. Back then, it was the seller who had the upper hand. Today, it’s the candidate who holds the power.

The competition for talent is fierce. Candidates are receiving multiple offers and companies are losing out on opportunities as their job openings remain unfilled. 

As a result, companies need to ensure that they are able to land the right candidates quickly - before they slip away.

Here are a few things that companies can do to secure the right person before their competition does.

1) Create a current, detailed, and engaging job description. When your candidates ask for a job description, do not email them boilerplate. A generic or recycled JD sends a negative message, not the least of which is, “This role is not important enough for me to create an original and specific description of your duties.” It’s pretty easy to tell when you get a mass email message (even when it’s individually mail-merged to your name). I rarely pay attention to or follow-up on those emails. Don’t let your job description fall victim to the same fate when it arrives in a candidate’s inbox.

2) Don’t wait! This may sound simple, but it is astounding how long some companies take to review resumes, schedule interviews, and on-board candidates. When candidates are interviewing with several companies and receiving multiple offers, those companies who drag their feet in setting up interviews and making decisions will be left in the dust. Candidates become disillusioned with companies that cannot execute efficiently. If a company is taking more than six weeks from the time a role is given to a recruiter to when an offer is made, then opportunities will be missed. In today’s climate, I am shooting for a total of 2-4 weeks from the time I receive a job order to the offer stage. Otherwise, the great candidates may move on and your job will remain open indefinitely as you now search for any remaining, sub-par talent.

3) Roll out the red carpet. It’s going to take more than a lateral move to bring certain candidates on board. Today, if an offer letter arrives in a candidate’s inbox, it may require several other phone calls and negotiations before it’s signed. Proper on-boarding is a team effort with multiple members of a company becoming involved. Never assume candidates will choose your job over all the others. Let this motivate you to market your company and the role to them. For a critical role in a tight candidate market, you certainly do not want to lose someone at the end of a long recruiting process. After looking at hundreds of resumes and spending weeks interviewing, the last thing you want is for the candidate you have chosen to turn down your offer. Go big - leave no doubt in the candidate’s mind that she should choose your job. 

a. Be creative with your budget. Offer an aggressive base salary, signing bonus, equity, extra vacation days, or other added perks.

b. Send his/her family a welcome basket. This is a recommendation of my twin brother (linkedin.com/in/daniel-williams-aa0b405), who has seen it used to great effect. You can include your company’s product if applicable. It’s a nice gesture that few companies extend. It communicates, “Our family welcomes your family.”

c. Have the CEO make a personal phone call to the candidate. This goes a long way in showing the candidate the efforts that your company will make to bring him/her on board. It also indicates that the CEO values your candidate’s role. A quick, 5 minute phone call speaks volumes and could be the difference in your offer being accepted or not.

d. Show the candidate where she will be in 12 months and in 24 months. The prospect of growth and advancement often carries more weight than starting salary.

e. Ask peers who will be working with the candidate to send her a brief email describing a few things that they like about your company and how they look forward to working with her soon.

f. Create a top 10 list – this is simply a leave-piece to give the candidate at the end of the interview. You can include specific reasons why your company is better than your competitor, quotes from employees, projected forecasts of company growth, etc. Keep it short, to the point and one page long. But make it look professional – full-color and well designed. Don’t hand out photocopies of a Word document.

g. Tell the candidate that you will be willing to consider a salary adjustment in six-months. This is especially important if you feel like your base salary offer will be somewhat weaker than expectations.

h. Make sure your offer letter includes everything you discussed during the process. I often see offer letters that are missing key components that were already promised. Besides making your company look disorganized, an incomplete offer letter can also erode trust. Keep the offer letter straightforward, personal and welcoming. Don’t overloaded it with legal jargon and technical details. If necessary, those can be sent in a separate document.

Given the current market and candidate climate, finding the right person for your role and being able to land him or her are becoming increasingly difficult. However, with the right approach and strategy, companies can win the battle for talent and remain ahead of their competitors.

If you would like to hear more about current trends and industry insights, you can reach me at: [email protected]