Securing the Best Job Candidate: Are Employers Closing the Deal?

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Ginni Garner
Ginni Garner
03/23/2009

Have you spent months as an employer sourcing, interviewing job candidates and finding the perfect job opportunity only to have an offer turned down in the 11th hour? How many times has the job candidate you wanted gotten away? Employers can spend several months searching for the perfect job candidate for an opening on the team. They may post ads, engage a job recruitment firm, read through a hundred resumes and interview numerous job candidates. After all the effort, the employer might find Mr. or Ms. Right and extend a job offer, only to have it turned down. Why did this happen?

Over the years, I have found that job candidates turn down a great opportunity because the employer has not sold the job candidate! While hiring managers were spending so much time interviewing and assessing potential job candidates, no one was taking time to understand the job candidate’s motivations. No one took the time to make sure that potential employee was "buying" the opportunity.

In order to make sure the job offer is accepted and the job candidate starts and makes it through the most critical first 90 days, employers must address these five points:
  1. Cultural fit—Will the job candidate’s career goals, strengths and values fit with the company’s vision, culture and position responsibilities? Has someone said to the job candidate, "This is how we see you fitting in to our company—do you see the fit as well?"
  2. Family—Does the job candidate’s family have to relocate? Has someone reached out to the job candidate’s spouse to learn about their needs or the needs of the children? If the job candidate has a family, relocation or the acceptance of a new position is generally a joint decision-making process.
  3. Compensation—Are the employers offering an attractive package to the job candidate with opportunity for financial growth both in the short term and over the next five years? Has the employer shared the financial opportunity with the job candidate? Has the job candidate been pre-closed on the base and incentive compensation?
  4. Room to grow—How much autonomy will the job candidate have to make decisions? How will taking this position help the job candidate to grow his or her skills or career?
  5. Connection—Has the job candidate experienced the company’s culture? Met his or her peers? Has anyone taken both the job candidate and his or her spouse to dinner? Employees spend one third of their lives at work. To accept a new role, a job candidate must feel that he or she can make a connection at work and with other employees.
During the job interview, in the time between the job offer and acceptance, between the offer and first day of work and during the employee’s first 90 days on the job, employers should be gauging the job candidate’s buying signals. Make sure that someone on the hiring team has assessed the job candidate’s feelings on the five points above. If hiring managers do this, they will save time and close the deal.


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