Making a Fresh Offer to a Prior Candidate – Goldmine or Landmine?

If you’re in HR or a recruiter, you’ve had offers declined. What I find absolutely enchanting about such a miserable outcome is the underlying qualities that sneak out during this downhill process. AND, what if the candidate who declined is really the best candidate for the job?!?

Sometimes the most impressive candidates can suddenly get nasty during offer negotiation. They can become arrogant and demanding in their communications, suddenly ask for $20K more than they’d originally requested, or require outrageous benefits. They can drag out their decision for weeks, leaving the company wondering why they’d made the offer in the first place. Hiring managers can be difficult too. It’s can often become an ugly game of expecting the other person to step a little past the middle, a little bit of an unequal compromise to keep the upper hand.

In those instances, it’s easy to say goodbye to a candidate and never look back. But what if a candidate handles the offer and negotiation tactfully, but in the end rejects the final offer? Many reasons for declining a job offer have nothing to do with the company or a candidate’s interest in working there. Things like:

• timing of personal events vs start date (like buying a house/vacation/wedding),
• timing of payments (like big commissions paid out after requested start date),
• work location (relocation required vs local office vs work-from-home),
• fewer benefits (like phone/office/car allowance, higher healthcare expense).

Any of these could result in a declined offer by a highly qualified candidate, just due to bad timing or temporary budget restrictions. As the search continues and you re-evaluate the pool of top candidates, do you ever go back and reconsider that earlier candidate if their original reason for declining is no longer an issue? How do candidates feel about receiving a second offer from a company?

It’s sometimes a matter of pride on both sides of the table. If there was a strong enough match between the job opportunity and that ideal candidate to make the original offer, doesn’t that initial match still exist a little while later? I had an HR manager tell me he’d ask his hiring manager, “Other than your pride, why are we not reconsidering this person?” That’s ballsy HR gold. The kind of relationship every HR Manager and Recruiter should aspire to have with hiring managers they support in their organization. Even if it’s not about pride, being able to clarify that is priceless.

Would you go back and make a second offer to a candidate, after your first offer had been declined? Why or why not? As a candidate, what would you think?

Whine and Cheese

Hey HR, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think “open position?” Lemme guess, money, time and irritation? Not getting other important things done? Hiring managers leaving you meanie voicemails and/or begging for you to magically produce the perfect candidate? Drowning in resumes, emails, phone calls and just plain cheesy attempts by applicants to catch your attention – like shoes with resumes tucked in them and homemade baked goods.

How about you, Hiring Manager? I bet you’re thinking about all those nights you are going to be working late to finish duties resulting from that empty spot in your department, reading hundreds of resumes in your so-called “free time,” and finding even more time for the interviews, paperwork and follow-up that comes from the hiring process.

Job-Seeker, what do you think of when you hear about an open position these days? Filling out another application…never hearing back from anyone…countless other applicants competing for the same job?

Recruiters, what do you think? Opportunity? Why are they having trouble filling this role? Who do I know, what do I know in their industry?

Clearly, hiring is typically a painful process on the part of HR and job-seekers. And this is understandable! Hiring is far from the only responsibility of most people in HR and most hiring managers. Thankfully, recruiters have a different mindset! They see it as an opportunity to fill a need by making connections between people they know and clients (employers) that hire them. Additionally, filling that open job really IS their primary job function!

Future posts will discuss how employers can partner with recruiters in ways that really will save money, frustration and time. (Yes – you can actually SAVE money by hiring someone to help!) Job seekers will learn how to be more effective at getting identified by people who are hiring, not to mention looking/sounding good when they find you. And overall, there will be posts about how Hiring Managers/HR/Recruiters can form a strong partnership.

Seriously, it shouldn’t be that painful. Dare I say it could be fun?