Your dream candidate said YES. Now what?

After implementing your recruitment process, you found your dream candidate AND they have agreed to accept the offer to join your team.

Congratulations!

So, what happens next? In most processes, the wait now begins. There is usually some lag time between the candidate accepting your offer and their first day. But, what you may not realise is that their first day may never transpire!

Yes, you read that right. It is possible that after all of that your candidate could:

• Get cold feet, and decline your offer
• Get a better offer, and opt to take that one instead, or
• Accept a counter offer from their current employer

It sounds like a nightmare, doesn't it? That's because it is - after all of that effort, you may be left to start again. And your business is left with a critical gap in the interim.

Why does this happen?

Think about it from the candidate's perspective. Accepting a new position represents a massive change for them. And after saying yes to you, they need to do a lot of daunting things like resign from their job, share the news with family and friends and then follow through by making all of the changes associated with changing jobs.

While the candidate is going through all of this, they are getting lots of feedback from the people around them and traditionally, during this time, they are not in touch with you at all.

This means that they don't have the opportunity to get to know you and your company better, ask questions or get excited about what's to come. Sometimes candidates can keep going on faith and maintain their own excitement, but others could use your help!

What can we do to avoid this?

It's time to think of onboarding differently.

Instead of seeing onboarding as a process that starts on your new team member's first day, think of onboarding as starting on the day your new team member accepts the offer to join your team.

By seeing onboarding in this way, you can begin to brainstorm how you can stay in touch with your new team member between their signing date and their first day.

Here are some simple examples of what you could do:

• Have a short 1:1 meeting with them after you receive their signed offer, to congratulate them and answer any questions that they may have.
• Set up coffee chats between them and any key team members that you think it would be good for them to get to know.
• Share business news or bite sized training content to help them get to know your company better

By taking these steps your new team member starts to get to know you and your company before they even start; and any points of doubt can be easily answered by you as the lines of communication are open.

Through implementing these actions, you will be able to maintain your team member's excitement for their new role and support them through the transition process.

And, all of this will mean that they are more likely to actually start at your company on their scheduled first day.

Connect with me

I would love to invite you to my complimentary workshop on March, 5th, 2024 at 1PM EST / 6PM BST / 7PM CET. During our time together I will share my hiring process with you so that you can find your first, or next team member with ease.

To secure your seat, RSVP at this link: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/589169/112459883497916337/share

Stay in touch?

Follow our page: https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/lead-with-sheree, or follow us on Instagram @lead_withsheree, or on YouTube @LeadwithSheree. You can also visit our website at www.leadwithsheree.com.