Recruiting—Your Monthly Tip for Success

Making Job Offers – Navigating the Minefield!

Have you ever spent weeks or months recruiting a great candidate, only to have everything "blow up" at the offer stage? Below are a few tips to help manage this fragile part of the hiring process and increase chances of acceptance.

Keep Your Interview Process Moving:

Time kills all deals. Waiting causes candidates to lose enthusiasm and feel negatively toward your offer. And because they kept interviewing, competition will drive up their salary requirements.

Uncover Candidate Motivation:

Your candidate’s motive for change should involve more than money. Otherwise, they’ll accept a counter offer at their current employer, or leave you for more money.  

Ask for Current Compensation Up Front:

Asking for a candidate’s current compensation at the very beginning is vital, but it’s not always easy.  With bad interview advice circulating on social media, candidates are resistant to revealing compensation.

If you start the interview by asking their reasons for leaving and their ending compensation for each job on the resume, they’ll likely provide current compensation. If not, you can make a reasonable guess by adding 10% to their ending salary at the previous job, and the typical (3-4% annual increases) for each year at the current employer.

Gain Verbal Agreement First:

Always discuss your offer with the candidate, before sending an offer letter. This reduces the risk a candidate will use it to negotiate a counter offer or higher offer with another company.  And you’ll be able to confirm their interest, hear their reaction, and get verbal acceptance, before sending a letter.

Make a Reasonable Offer:

The average base pay increase for someone to change employers is around 10% to 15%, and for those in high demand, it could be 20% or higher. If your offer is less than the low end of the range, acceptance is not likely.  Be sure to confirm current compensation again by email, before any offer discussion, to avoid misunderstanding and improve odds of accuracy.

Next Month—The Golden Rule of Recruiting & The Red Carpet

Kathy Cole has helped construction companies match extraordinary job opportunities to exceptional talent for more than 20 years. She founded DK Cole Executive Search in 2006. She is past president of the Chicago Chapter of the Construction Financial Management Association.