Why You Should Let The Recruiter Make The Job Offer

“Delivering a job offer is a little like delivering a baby - You could do it yourself, however, it's probably safer and easier to have somebody that has your best interests at heart doing it for you...”

There is so much thought that goes into hiring, yet little thought is often given to HOW you’re going to deliver the offer once you’ve found your candidate.

Enlisting the exclusive services of a recruiter usually means you’re entrusting the hiring process – start to finish to that recruiter. They like the commitment, you like that they get the job done quickly and efficiently. However, there are instances were hiring managers decide they should be the ones to deliver the final official job offer to the candidate.

This is a huge mistake. And here’s why.

One of the main reasons you should be employing the services of a recruiter, is not for the process management, their expert application filtering skills or their management of your diary. No, the main reason you should employ a recruiter is the relationship that a recruiter has with his or her candidates.

This relationship, built on trust, communication and a mutual understanding is a recruiter’s best asset. To a candidate, a recruiter becomes a source of knowledge, advice and a guide throughout the hiring process, and eventually if and when it comes to offer stage, their Chief Negotiator.

And for the Hiring Manager? It’s not you have NOT built a relationship with your candidate, it’s that the recruiter has a much more intimate, deeper understanding of the candidate’s key motivators. Armed with this knowledge, a recruiter can advise you on WHAT offer will get the job done, but also knows HOW to deliver it in such a way that the package looks attractive, even if the base number might not be quite right.

There will be plenty of time to show your commercial prowess when you and your preferred candidate are working together, not at the offer stage; As soon as offer negotiations start to feel like a battle, someone will win and someone will lose. And this is a terrible way to kick-start a working relationship.

There are also other factors to consider when tempted to deliver an offer directly. There are things that a candidate will NOT Tell a hiring manager, but will reveal to a recruiter;

• They are interviewing elsewhere.
• They are susceptible to a counter offer.
• They are excited to join the team, but haven’t even told their partner they are interviewing yet…

Negotiations are emotive.

If humans were capable of dealing with this kind of thing directly, there would be no market for Estate Agents, Solicitors, Talent Managers and the like. Humans are emotional creatures. It is one of the reasons we are top of the food chain. It is also the main reason why you SHOULD NOT deliver a job offer to a candidate directly.