As a hiring manager, you may sift through hundreds of resumes and conduct multiple interviews until you finally find the perfect candidate to fill your vacant role, only to present the candidate with an offer that is subsequently declined. Perhaps this has even occurred multiple times throughout your hiring process. Keep reading for insight from Talance Group into why candidates are declining your offers to better understand how you can adjust your process moving forward.
1. A Misunderstanding of the Market
There are many reasons why offers are declined. One of the most common reasons is a simple misunderstanding of the current job market. Your offer may be lower than what other companies are currently paying for a particular background, as these market changes can sometimes happen in a matter of months. Most candidates are willing to flex a bit on their salary requirements if they see other non-financial benefits such as growth opportunities, working from home, and others; but you will lose out if your offer isn’t at least competitive. While budget constraints should be taken into account, it is imperative that an offer is up to par with the skill set you require. Otherwise, you need to flex on some other job requirements or expect your search to take a longer time to fill.
2. An Inefficient Hiring Process
Sometimes an offer is declined not for financial reasons but due to how efficiently your company moves a candidate through the hiring process. In a candidate’s market, even if you have the most compelling opportunity, you can lose a candidate to another offer if you have too many steps in the hiring process, take too long in between interviews, or drag your feet on getting an offer approved. Find ways to reduce the time from first interview to offer. Also, when you meet a great candidate, don’t be rigid in requiring to see a certain number of qualified candidates before making a decision. You’ll likely miss out on this one waiting for the others.
3. You Didn’t Sell the Opportunity Well Enough
Top performers have many choices when it comes to selecting a role. Chances are, if your offers are being declined you failed to properly sell the opportunity to the candidate and therefore it did not stand out to them when it came time to accept an offer. Top candidates will sometimes accept a lower salary in exchange for a more exciting opportunity, so selling the role is key. Take a little time to paint a picture of the strong growth potential within the company, the challenges to be faced, what goals the company or department is trying to reach, and how the candidate fits into that plan. Too many interviewers are focused on evaluating the candidate and they neglect selling the role as a result. While you obviously need to determine if the candidate has “what’s in it for me”, make sure you spend some time focusing on “what’s in it for them”.
Partner with Talance
At Talance Group, we’re dedicated to improving talent acquisition so that our clients and candidates both find the growth they desire. We will work with you not only to find the talent you need, but to help ensure that your placement is successful. The recruiting professionals at Talance Group have years of experience in their dedicated areas of focus as well as in the hiring process, and enthusiastically share best practices to streamline your talent search. For more information about our services, reach out to us today at talancegroup.com/contact-us.
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