You've found the dream candidate but now we need to get them to sign on the dotted line. It's not always as straightforward as you'd hope and there are some common pitfalls so I've put together some insights from my experience over the years where clients have won and sometimes lost their preferred candidate.
1. Salary
If a candidate has been put forward for a role at a specific salary then please don’t negotiate at the end of the process when everyone has committed so much time to that point. Take care to consider their expectations and benchmark fairly based on their particular experience and current position. Be honest and upfront at the start with your expectations.
2. Decisiveness
If you find the best person for the job, crack on and be decisive. It helps us to not only secure the best person on your behalf but also helps build a positive impression for your business in the candidate market.
3. Speed
In a competitive market a speedy interview process is more important than ever to secure the preferred candidate over your competition. Pace = success.
4. Open-mindedness
Often the underdog option can end up being the best option.
5. Detail
Write a detailed job description making sure that you give equal measures of what the role entails whilst also remembering to include what makes this an exciting opportunity for prospective candidates.
6. Sell yourself too
Yes you're interviewing for a position in your organisation, but don't forget it's a two-way process. It's important not to forget to sell yourself and the company to a prospective colleague. What makes this such an attractive option for talent? Progression, culture, a collaborative and inclusive team...? Candidates will be disappointed if they don't feel reciprocity in the process. Remember that whilst they see an opportunity in your company, often they will have other options or they're not actively looking, and their current firm will likely try very hard to entice them to stay if they're a good egg.
7. Have reasonable expectations
If a candidate passed their exams 5 years ago and has since been working in a commercial role, when they interview for something with more of a technical focus of course they're going to brush up, but don't expect them to instantly recall the detail of a particular accounting standard they've not had to use lately. Be reasonable in your expectations when you consider whether someone is suitable for a role and try to take a holistic view of their suitability for that role.
Focus on a candidate's current experience and how that gives them the capacity to thrive in their new role and in your organisation.
8. Counter-offers
This is a real issue which I’m sure you can relate to (who wants to lose their star performer to the competition?!) and something you need to be aware of when trying to secure someone.
To give yourself the best chance of getting around it, ensure that you communicate and send out offer letters and contracts within 24 hours of the verbal offer, remind the candidate not to communicate anything to their employer until after they’ve signed the contract. This gives their current employer less time to pull together a counter-offer. You can also encourage the candidate to keep an open dialogue if they do get a counter-offer and be prepared that you might have to pay a bit extra to secure them! I also find that it’s useful to run through with them their original motivators for looking for a new role in the first place. In my experience counter-offers never work out longer term, they’ve burnt that bridge with their current employer and will likely be looking again in 6 months.
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