Extending the Offer Letter

Making Sure Your Canditates Say Yes

Have you spent months sourcing and interviewing candidates only to have an offer turned done at the 11th hour? How many times has the one-you-wanted gotten away? Companies can spend several months searching for the perfect fit for an opening on the team. They may have posted ads, engaged a recruitment firm, read through a hundred resumes and interviewed numerous candidates. After all of this effort they find Mr. or Ms. Right and extend an offer only to have it turned down. Why did this happen?

Over the years, I have found that candidates turn down a great opportunity because they have not been sold! While hiring managers were spending so much time interviewing and assessing, no one took the time to understand the candidate’s motivations. No one took the time to make sure that candidate was ‘buying’ the opportunity.

In order to make sure your employment offer is accepted, the candidate starts, and makes it through the most critical first 90 days you must address these five points:

1. Cultural fit – Will the candidate’s career goals, strengths and values fit with the company’s vision, culture and position responsibilities? Has someone asked the candidate, “ this is how we see you fitting in to our company – do you see the fit as well?”
2. Family – Does the family have to relocate? Has someone reached out to your candidate’s spouse to learn about their needs or the needs of the children? If your candidate has a family, relocation or the acceptance of a new position is generally a joint decision making process.
3. Compensation – Are you offering an attractive package with opportunity for financial growth both in the short term and over the next five years? Have you shared the financial opportunity with your candidate? Has the candidate been pre-closed on the base and incentive compensation?
4. Room to grow – How much autonomy will the candidate have to make decisions? How will taking this position help this person to grow their skills or career?
5. Connection – Has your candidate experienced your culture? Met their peers? Has anyone taken both the candidate and spouse to dinner? Employees spend 1/3 of their lives at work. To accept a new role, a candidate must feel that they can make a connection with the work and other employees.

Throughout the entire interview and onboarding process, you should be monitoring and gauging your new employees buying signals. Make sure that someone on the hiring team has assessed your candidate’s feelings on the five points above. If you do, you will save time and close the deal.

- Ginni Garner