8 Steps to Making the Right Offer of

Employment

By following this guide to making an offer of employment to a candidate you will substantially reduce the number of people you lose out on, who ultimately succumb to a counter offer, offer from somewhere else, or simply reject your offer.

Consider the Bigger Picture beforeMaking an OfferYou’ve found a great candidate having exhausted your own direct hiring channels (and also possibly those of your recruitment agency partnerships) and now want to make sure that when you make an offer of employment the candidate will accept it. When delivering an offer to a candidate you are always mindful about them accepting a counter-offer from their current employer or accepting another offer elsewhere if they’re active in the job market.

Below are some important points to consider before you make the offer:

Is your Offer Fair and Competitive?It might sound obvious, but to the best of your knowledge have you offered the candidate fair market value for the role they are going to be doing and is it in line with their experience? Look objectively at what the candidate’s value is to your organisation and avoid getting preoccupied with what their current salary is. If you decide to “low ball” the candidate and offer the bare minimum then you should accept the risk associated with this.

We are in a candidate driven market where really good people are hard to find, let alone secure. Companies like yours are after the best candidates who will have a substantial impact on the bottom line of the business they run. Before delivering an offer it’s vital that you understand their collective remuneration and not just their basic salary. The candidate might have to walk away from certain benefits in their current organisation e.g. increased holiday allowance (having accrued additional days via length of service), shares they’ve accrued during their time with the company, enhanced pension schemes, free parking, health benefits, subsidised travel, childcare vouchers etc. You may have to consider compensating the candidates for the benefits they may have to give up if they’re going to accept your offer of employment.

By looking at the candidate’s value to your organisation, the budget for that hire and the cost of having this role vacant, it may be commercially sensible to:

Offer the maximum you possibly can to increase the chances of securing the candidate

Create a real sense of engagement and buy-in from the candidate as an employer who values their worth

Recognise the cost of going back to the drawing board could in fact exceed the saving you might make if you chose to offer the candidate a lower salary which they subsequently decline.

Take into account that if a candidate is not working, this should not automatically result in a low offer being made, they will have a fair value in the market regardless of their current employment status

Calculate the Cost of Starting the Hiring Process…. again! Add together the cost, both in time and monetary terms of having to re-advertise the role, arrange interviews (which will also impact on hiring managers time), all with no guarantee that you'll find the right candidate as good as the one you wanted to secure in the first place. It may be second time round you appoint someone out of necessity and end up paying an inflated salary just because you can't risk going back to the drawing board.

The other important factor is to consider the cost and profit impact of having the role vacant for a longer period of time with no guarantee that you'll find a candidate as good as the one who's turned your offer down. Also be mindful of your employer brand, candidates will have seen the role advertised once and then they are seeing it re-advertised again in a short space of time. This would be a red flag to many candidates who have a number of alternative roles to consider.

Coming up with a fair and competitive package is only part of the process to securing the candidate, it's important to consider what other aspects of the total package are going to be important to the candidate. Put yourself in the candidate's shoes and think about what else might be important to you if you were considering making a career move.

Does the Candidate feel wanted?We all acknowledge recruiting the right people is difficult, competitive and fraught with risks right up until they start. Candidate’s have an obligation to get across at interview that they are keen on both the role and to work for the organisation. We’ve highlighted the importance of making a competitive offer to a candidate, but your chance of securing them can be further enhanced by how wanted they feel throughout the process. The main challenge to this is that various people can be involved throughout the recruitment process and consistency in approach can be mixed.

We’ve found that organisations who approach candidates with a “justify why you think your good enough to work for us” mentality alienate good candidates which only serves to push them into the hands of your competitors. We’re not suggesting that you roll out the red carpet and make the interview process fluffy, but there is a way to engage with candidates and make them feel wanted.

On-boardingMaking a move to a new employer is a leap into the unknown for many people, they will leave behind friends and a knowledge of how things are done. Candidates are keen to understand what kind of induction they will receive, what does it look like, how long does it last etc. Will their training be done in a different location to their normal base, who will be involved in their induction, what are the organisation’s expectations of them during this period? This is not something that should be communicated a week before they start, but instead when the offer is relayed to them. Do not have a candidate hanging on for information you consider trivial, but is of high importance to them as they are vulnerable right up until the morning they start with you.

Training & DevelopmentEnsure you’ve clearly communicated what your organisations philosophy is behind growing, nurturing and developing talent… Candidates will want some reassurance of what they will receive that will enable them to fulfill their career aspirations. Training and development can be one of the key reasons why people look for a new role, if your organisation is renowned for this then actively market it to a candidate throughout the process, and remind them of it when delivering an offer of employment.

Don’t delay making an offer If you’re in the fortunate position of having found more than 1 good candidate for the role and are deciding on which candidate to offer, always try to avoid the decision process becoming more prolonged than is absolutely necessary. It’s important to recognize that if you think the candidate(s) are good then so will other organisations who they might be interviewing with. If you dither on making an offer you could infact lose both candidates and be left to go back to square one. If you are managing the recruitment process for a hiring manager you might need to ensure they are aware of the need to make prompt decisions and highlight the consequences of failing to do so. Most candidates understand it may take a few days after final interview for a decision to be made, but this should be communicated accordingly.

We find that on more than one occasion line managers will say things like “we’ll make a decision and come back to you tomorrow”, thus setting an expectation with the candidate. Our advice would be to always avoid putting timescales on when feedback or an offer will be received and instead say for example; “we’ll endeavour to come back to you as soon as we can, we hope this would be before the middle of next week.” The point we are making is communication is vital and organisations who do this consistently with candidates in a timely manner throughout the process are the ones likely to secure the best people.

Putting the Offer in Writing

Any delays in putting the offer in writing can create question marks in the candidate’s mind. We have examples of organisations, typically larger ones, who still haven’t raised the offer paperwork less than a week before a candidate is due to start. The quicker you can generate offer letters (even if it is an email confirming the offer before the offer paperwork is generated, which is typical of larger organisations), details of your bonus, benefit schemes etc. then the more secure and confident that candidate will feel that they’ve made the right choice.

Often people make important decisions on an element of ‘gut feel’, does it feel right? Any unnecessary delays in following up of a verbal offer can create seeds of doubt in the candidate’s mind, especially if they have a written offer from another company who was still an attractive option to them. Use engaging language in your written correspondence with the candidate to ensure they feel valued. A phone call from the line manager giving a personal welcome costs the organisation nothing, but the value to the candidate who is joining the company is huge .

In Summary… Securing your preferred candidate isn’t always easy but the actions that organisations take through the process determines success or failure. Line Managers can need coaching and support from HR teams regarding how to successfully recruit and on-board people and it can be an automatic thought that a Manager knows how to do this. The Market has changed and there can be no blame attached to organisations that are unaware of these changes or indeed hiring conditions at the time. By sharing our thoughts about current market conditions and what it takes to successfully offer and secure talent, with HR teams and interviewing managers, we’re sure you’ll notice a positive impact with the number of candidates who accept your offer of employment and successfully start with you.

Detail2Leisure are one of the UKs leading hospitality recruitment specialists focusing specifically on contract catering & facilities management, restaurants, bars, hotels, chefs, leisure & entertainment venues. From our offices in London, Manchester, Edinburgh & Dublin we work closely with our clients on a national basis, so that we are able to recommend candidates who are closely aligned to their organisational values and behaviours.

Thanks for reading!

The

Detail2Leisure

Team