How to Extend Job Offers Successfully

Aug 2011 Joe Plocharczyk, Pine Lake Solutions

You did it! You successfully found someone you want to extend an offer to. The hard part is over… Or is it?

I’ve been working in the recruiting field for some time now, and I’ve found that the average hiring manager takes his foot off the gas right before extending an offer, sometimes messing up the entire process by explaining sloppily that they want the candidate to join the team.

Here are some pointers to remember once you’ve identified the right candidate for the job, to ensure that you don’t screw it all up at the end.

What Is the Candidate Worth?
Before you find out what the candidate wants you must first figure out what the candidate’s really worth to you. You’ve established that you would like to work with the candidate, but what is the cost? What is the rest of the team making and what skills does this person have? Keep in mind that you’ll think your team has more experience using a particular technology, simply because they’ve been using it under your supervision. Also be sure that you’re compensating your existing team appropriately and competitively with the current market conditions. It’s better for you to find out before they do, because they will eventually.

Know the Candidate’s Expectations
A candidate’s desired compensation is made up of three numbers: their “bottom line” number, their “happy” number and their “thrilled” number. The candidate would obviously like to get their thrilled number, but there’s only so much you can do with your budget and, let’s face it, their thrilled number might be completely unrealistic and could set the wrong dynamic. They might come in with a large ego and not respect anyone else’s decisions.

You’ll face a similar problem if you offer their “bottom line” number. The candidate knows you know their bottom line, so to offer that number implies you’re being cheap and aren’t willing to beat their bottom line, even by a small amount. How a company hires is usually an indication of how they will manage and is this how you want to set the stage before someone even starts with you? If the bottom line number is really is the best you can do, give the candidate some reasons why you made that offer.

The ideal salary, the candidate’s “happy” number, is somewhere in-between. The number that says, “I want to give you more than your bottom line, but you’ll need to work up to your thrilled number and here’s how we can get you there.” The happy number can be only marginally above their bottom line number; but that increase will make the candidate a little more excited to come on board and it will make them work harder and, more importantly, happier on day one.

DO Make an Offer This Way
When arriving at a number always make a verbal offer before putting together an offer package. The last thing you want to do is to send a candidate off with a package they’ll take a week to consider when the core numbers might not even work. If you’re working with an agency this process is ideal because the agent will deliver the “bottom line,” “happy,” and “thrilled” numbers to you and prepare the candidate to accept any of the three numbers when you come out with the verbal offer.

If you’re not using an agency, engage the candidate in a conversation to discover what salary will make the most sense. You don’t want to directly ask the candidate what their “bottom line” is, but you can usually gauge those numbers if you ask what they’re looking for and compare it to their most recent salary. Usually a 5%-7% increase will be a “happy” number, but circumstances are different based on who you’re making an offer to.

Always explain your offer to the candidate and what your short and long term vision for them is. People don’t choose to stay long term just because they’re getting an extra $100 slapped onto their paychecks. They skip to work because of what they’re doing on a daily basis, how they’re challenged and how their role contributes to a shared company vision.

DON’T Make an Offer This Way
Don’t ask what the candidate is looking for and what they’re currently making, and then make an offer below both numbers. You’ll run the risk of insulting the candidate even if you’re ready to come back with a higher counteroffer.

Always make your best offer first. Counteroffers rarely work.

Don’t Be a Loser
Any start date longer than two weeks from the hire date should be a red flag. When a start date is extended that far out without good reason you should question it. After all, you’re running a big risk by shutting down the position for three weeks while the candidate is getting counteroffers and tempting recruiting calls from your competitors every day. For some reason, once a candidate gets an offer, other opportunities tend to surface out of the woodwork. Don’t take any chances; candidates who start later than three weeks after accepting an offer are 20% less likely to stick with that job offer than candidates who start within two weeks.

I recently said this to a hiring manager who had told a candidate to start four weeks after accepting an offer. He replied, “If they end up accepting another position after accepting mine then I don’t want them anyway.” That’s like losing a basketball game and saying you weren’t trying to win anyway, or not going the extra mile to get the girl of your dreams and blaming it on destiny. If you want something, go get it! Don’t give excuses that are just a mental parachute to your disappointment when you lose. More importantly, don’t be a loser!

Hire with an Eye for Potential, not Experience

Aug 2011 Joe Plocharczyk, Pine Lake Solutions

I spent some time with a client in the Digital Advertising Technology world in NYC recently and had a conversation that was centered around the topic of Innovation, in particular, Disrupting the current way they do things currently to figure out how to do it better.

“Disruption is when you change the known to the unknown,” said my client. “You have to learn how to reboot! Seek an opportunity to redefine yourself at any point.”

This is very relevant to where the marketplace is today. Right now, we’re in the midst of a technology revolution, specifically on how we communicate and stay connected. There are more products emerging that take advantage of a global infrastructure that’s projected to increase from $500 Billion (’08) to $950 Billion (’13).

So if you’re a hiring manager, you have a particular need to find talent that will deliver on a current project that needs to be completed. The question is: when you hire, do you look at people that have done it before or people that have the potential to do it better?

One thing my client warned in his conversation with my team was to not bring on people who have tackled a similar problem in the past but to seek out people who haven’t faced that problem before. Find fresh talent that look at things differently, the issue with finding people who have done it before is that they know what “can’t” be done and therefore limit themselves to what “can”.
When you’re looking to bring on talent, be open minded that it might be a better idea to hire someone that sees your opportunity as a step in the right direction as opposed to a lateral move. It’s a dangerous way to go about hiring, because eventually everyone’s looking for a step in the right direction and you might be replacing your “no ramp up time needed” candidate shortly after hiring them.

Hire with an eye for potential and not just experience. You’ll have a team that will surpass your expectations because you don’t establish limits to them.

The Issues with Extending Job Offers Too Late

October 2011, Joe Plocharczyk, Pine Lake Solutions

With the demand for technical and sales talent in digital advertising these days I wonder why, after completing many rounds of interviews and deciding to hire a candidate, it takes more than three days to come out with an offer. Why wait? You lose momentum from the last interview with every minute that goes by. Take advantage of the moment and make the offer you intend to make within 24 hours of the candidate’s final interview. Otherwise you run the risk of stunting the momentum you’ve worked so hard to create and souring the experience for the job seeker.

Everyone has been in this situation: you go to a restaurant, you have a great meal, the experience and vibe of the place is amazing and the wait staff is very friendly, timely and informative. Then you finish your meal and your cocktail and you wonder where that wonderful waiter went. It’s obvious that the server is busy with other tables, but all they need to do is get the check for you and you’ll be out the door! As time goes on, the great dining experience you had turns sour and while it won’t completely ruin the experience it will stick in your mind and be the last thing you remember about the place. All that hard work the server put in at the beginning is forgotten and his tip will, no doubt, be drastically reduced.

Similarly, while the job seeker reflects on the interviewing experience and wonders why it’s taking so long to make a decision, they start resenting how long they’re being made to wait. Put yourself in the shoes of a job seeker after a final round interview. Imagine that you felt it went very well and maybe the hiring manager even said that they will be getting back to you shortly with an offer or a positive decision. A day passes, then two days, then the weekend.

Here’s the job seeker’s thought process:

• They’re interviewing other candidates so I should check out other options to see if there’s anything better out there.
• Did I say something that put them off in the final interview? It wasn’t a technical interview so maybe they just didn’t like me and were putting on a fake façade.
• I have an offer already from my #2 choice. Since my #1 choice is taking so long I had better accept the offer from my #2. After all, a bird in hand is better than two in the bush!
• If they take this long to make a decision, how do they make other decisions?
• Do I want to work for someone that can’t make up their mind?

Ultimately you can see that letting a candidate sit for too long is not a good thing. Job seekers are not wine or cheese! They’re people who want to be hired. I understand that larger companies have processes in place for a reason and an approval strategy must be gone through before any offers are extended, but you can get all of that done before the final round interview. You can get ready to go so you can make a timely decision.

Here are some other tips:

• Allow your agency to get verbal acceptance (compensation aside) and let the job seeker know that once you get verbal acceptance you will generate the offer letter.
• Alert your hiring “party” that you have a candidate that you’re strongly considering, in order to get the necessary paperwork out of the way before the final round interview.
• If you’re working with an agency make sure that they set the proper expectations with the job seeker ahead of time so it doesn’t become a frustrating “hurry up and wait” scenario. Stay in close communication with your recruiters.
• Follow up with the job seeker and/or their agent every day to update them on what’s happening. The worst thing you can do is let the job seeker simmer without any updates.

In a perfect world you’d find a job seeker that you want to hire and you’d make them an offer. There are certain procedures for doing things that you must adhere to but don’t let them stand in the way of hiring the right candidate. The market is, once again, incredibly competitive for good candidates and sometimes the only thing that keeps you from getting the candidate you want is the slowness of your hiring process.