It’s one of the biggest fears of hiring managers.
A company spends countless hours finding people with the right experience for their open jobs. Countless phone calls, LinkedIn messages, role-plays and behavioral assessments later, they make it to the interviews. They knock it out of the park.
And when the offer arrives, they say no.
This scenario might keep some people up at night. The truth is, it can happen to even the best recruiters. However, good recruiters are always two steps ahead by demonstrating best practices in communication.
Why?
A good recruiting process is about transparency and personalization.
Someone asked me recently how to get candidates to accept a job if you can’t offer them more money. My goal is always to take money out of the conversation and find out if the candidate really wants the job. I follow up on those intrinsic motivators after every step in the process. When I do that, there are no surprises after a job offer.
I once placed someone who was employed at a large corporation who was seeking a role at a smaller company to make a broader impact. He told me this during our very first conversation. After every interview, I would ask him, what do you think? I know you want to influence the company on a wider level – do you feel like you’ll be satisfied here?
He ended up being a great fit for the role and accepted it for only a small compensation increase because we made sure his needs aligned to the role.
Through your conversations, you might learn about a candidate’s family or their career goals. Those things matter. They might care about a work-life balance, meaning they want the company to recognize that benefits and family leave are just as important to some employees as their day-to-day life on the job. They might want to feel passionate about a company’s mission because of an emotional connection to the problem the organization solves. Or they could miss performing one skill from an old job. You learn these things by building a relationship on mutual respect and genuine interest.
It might be easier if one perk or benefit was the magic way to secure a top candidate, but it’s just not the case. It’s all about putting candidates through a personal process.
This personal touch has become an expectation in our industry. If your process is impersonal, it’ll fail.
I care about finding the best possible talent for my client. I also care about placing candidates in a role where they’ll be happy, and where they’ll want to stay. That way, everyone wins.
