I'll make him an offer he can't refuse

Very famous words from a very famous film but as we're (hopefully) not going to threaten a candidate with violence to get them to accept our job offer, how do we maximise the chances of success when we want someone to come and work for us and what role should a Recruiter play in the process?

Let's set the scene, as there's a lot on the line here.

Several people in your business may have invested substantial amounts of time to get you to a point where a job offer is being extended to a new candidate. The prospect of starting all over again is NOT appealing.?

Here's my guide to maximising your chances:

Where is the candidate in their thinking? What's motivating them to consider their options in the job market in the first place? Do they have other options with other companies or with their current employer? If they do, where does your opportunity sit in their ranking??

"In recruitment, it's always better to know where you stand."

Sometimes in life it might be better not to know rather than know. In recruitment it's always better to know where you stand. If the candidate has interviewed with two of your competitors and feels your business is ranking third, should you really be making a job offer to this person or are you better off moving on to other people?

It might be tricky for you to get this information from someone which neatly brings me to the next point...

A solid Recruiter will understand where a candidate is at in their thinking and where they're up to with interview processes with others.?

Good Recruiters are also experts at negotiating salaries and packages - we do this all day every day for a living. I understand the urge some clients have to want to make offers to candidates directly. I'd counsel against this. I know what you're going to say that as Recruiters we just want to inflate salaries so our fee is more, but this just isn't the case.??

The difference between someone being paid ￡75,000 or ￡80,000 to my pocket is minimal.

What we're trying do is encourage you to make the best offer to secure your preferred candidate particularly if you're in a competitive situation where the candidate has other options. ? ??

I also wouldn't recommend making a job offer to someone during or at the end of an interview. The reason for this is it's highly unlikely that you or the candidate will have the information required to-hand for a decision to be made.

Understand the offer you're making - including salary and full benefits package -in relation to what the candidate gets currently.?

￡75,000 + package might well be financially superior to ￡80,000 + package. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but this all depends what's in the package; If the pension, car allowance and the bonus scheme are better on the ￡75,000 salary, someone could very easily be worse off even with what at face value looks like ￡5,000 salary bump.

This is why it's vital to understand the package you're offering vs. the candidate's existing package 'in the round' so that we're really making an accurate like for like comparison. It also means that if your benefits package is inferior, you'll have to change it somehow, so that someone is getting an actual monetary benefit in their new role with you.

Candidates will often do what I call a 'dining table reconciliation' putting the two situations side by side for comparison at home. You can get an edge here by discussing the salary and package in your offer in full with the candidate and getting them to compare it to their current salary and full package for a real agreement which takes account of all factors BEFORE the offer is formalised.

Failing this, if you make the offer in the room and they say 'yes' only to query it later when the paperwork comes through, if you're lucky, you might be able to correct things later down the line, but this doesn't look the most professional.?

Worst case scenario is in a competitive situation where you're up against others and you have to go back to your business to get more salary signed off, but then you lose out on the candidate because of the extra time this takes.? ? ?

Changing jobs is stressful and exciting and so it's normal to have nerves and sometimes a few doubts. Once the deal has been verbally agreed with the candidate, they're often 'chomping at the bit' to get the formal paperwork so they can resign. There's nothing worse for a candidate than coming home from work each day looking longingly towards the doormat hoping that today's the day when the offer arrives.?

The easy way to handle this is to manage expectations. If it's going to take a week to get an offer in writing - although this timeframe is not ideal - tell them, so they know what's happening. If you don't, grey clouds may start to form in the mind of the candidate. Maybe you're not going to make the offer...maybe you've got cold feet...?

Don't let these doubts creep into someone's mind. Communicate and help them feel in control of the process and feel certain they've made the right decision.

This might sound a bit dramatic but we're in a battle for talent. If you see this prospective employee as being valuable, the chances are their existing employer will too. They're probably going to try to keep them - after all what would you do if it was one of your best employees??

Keep in touch with them up until and after they've resigned; again a good Recruiter will help you do this. Keep in mind this person may have longstanding business and personal relationships with people in the company - and they'll be throwing everything at them to get them to change their mind.

Think about it - years of relationships with their current employer versus 6-9 hours over an interview process with you.

I've talked about this before in an article I wrote about best practice for onboarding ?

We recommend 3 c's:

Consistent

Continuous

Contact

Phone is good, but face-to-face is better. Get them to meet the team. Take them out for lunch or a drink. All of this helps the candidate solidify in their mind that they've made the right decision. It also lessens the fear of the unknown once they've gotten to know a few people. ? ?

Make yourself available offer support. This is a big decision the more you can do to help someone feel comfortable the better.

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So, there you have it. This is my primer on getting more job offers accepted - without sending the boys round or any other strong-arm tactics.