February Blog Making & Handling Offers of Employment: How to make sure you hire the right people the first time

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1 February Blog Making & Handling Offers of Employment: How to make sure you hire the right people the first time Introduction The people you employ are the lifeblood of your business. Without them you have no service and no product because they provide the service and sell the product. Yet, it is surprising how many companies launch themselves into recruiting for their company s most important asset and actually do very little preparation to ensure that they attract and select the right people. Hiring the wrong people is expensive in terms of the time taken to read through CV s, interview candidates, etc., etc. But is even more expensive is the damage a person with an inappropriate level of skill can do for your company s reputation. Some companies take a laissez faire attitude to this, thinking that if someone doesn t work out, they will simply replace them. However, a high staff turnover can be extremely unsettling to your existing workforce on a wide range of levels and therefore, it not a good business policy. The series is written by Helen Wilson, Sales Director of GPRS. GPRS is an award winning independent recruitment consultancy specialising in the Work Based Learning & Training Sector. GPRS is Investors in People Gold Standard, which is an indicator for high performance and an Investors in People Champion. Helen has over 20 years experience in recruitment and selection at all levels and across many, many sectors. Helen possesses the CIPD s Advanced Programme in the Psychology of Management and has over 10 years experience in writing Induction and Management Programmes in line with Investors in People. Where are we in the recruitment process? We are now on our 6th blog. The blogs so far have covered: Planning to Recruit Creating a Person Specification Inviting candidates for interview Preparing for an interview Conducting a professional interview using a formal interview structure and person specification Post interview feedback

2 Hopefully by this time you are absolutely sure this is the right candidate for your company. You will have used a Person Specification to interview to ensure that the candidate has the right qualifications, skills and personality for your company. You will have matched the candidate s own values to those of your company to safeguard against the risk of someone not fitting in or not buying into your values and culture. Interviews are a two way street, so offering a candidate the opportunity to come and join your company is only half of the story - the candidate needs to want to work for your company too. Just interviewing the candidate and assuming the candidate is interested is not enough. You need to ask the candidate. In sales we call this trial closing it is about testing the commitment of the other party. The best time to do this is at the end of the interview before the candidate leaves the room. Some useful questions to test the water are: What are your thoughts about the role? What is it about the company you like the sound of? Is there anything about the company you don t like the sound of? What is it about the role you like the sound of? Is there anything about the role you don t like the sound of? How does this role match with what you are looking for in your next career move? You are looking for a salary of XXXX? These questions are allowing you to assess the candidate s level of interest in your role and company. The questions also are checking if there are any reasons why the candidate may not wish to work for your company. If you ask these questions and you get a negative answer, you can overcome the objection whilst the candidate is in the room. However, it may also highlight reasons why the role isn t what the candidate is looking for and you may be wasting your time. If you re not offering what the candidate is looking for, then even if you offer the candidate because they appear to be the most suited to the role, they probably won t accept. Icebergs It isn t what shows about the surface that causes damage with an iceberg, but what lurks beneath the surface. The same can be said about candidates. You know what they say, assume makes an ass out of u and me. Don t assume, ask questions to find out if there is anything going on in the candidate s life that would prevent them coming to work for your company if the role was offered to them: What other interviews or applications do you have in the pipeline? How does the role here and our company compare with other vacancies you are looking at? Is there anything that could prevent you accepting the role here if offered holidays, operations, personal circumstances?

3 Final Close After you have made absolutely sure that the candidate is interested in your role, you need a final closing question, such as: So, if we offered you the role here, you would accept? You should of course given candidates some indication of when they would be hearing from you and this should be quite quickly following a final interview. If a candidate feels they have had a positive interview and then don t hear anything for weeks, the motivation and excitement they felt at the end of the interview will have waned and they will be looking at other opportunities. Giving them an indication of when they will hear from you helps you manage their expectations. Ideally, this should be no more than a week. The shorter the period of time, the better. Following an interview, GPRS ask the candidate to get in touch to give them feedback on how the interview went. The Market Specialist will ask all the trial closing questions and closing questions so they can assess the level of interest shown by the candidate. After the Market Specialist has spoken to the candidate, they call the client to get their feedback. At this point the Market Specialist will give the client any negative feedback from the candidate that indicates that the candidate isn t interested in the role. The GPRS Market Specialist will try to manage the candidate s expectations by telling them when they will expect to know whether the candidate has been selected for second interview. Preparing for the Offer If using an agency, the agency should have told you what salary and package the candidate is currently enjoying, if not, this is something you need to find this out at interview stage. It is our experience, that it is a rarity that candidates will accept a lower salary than they are being currently paid unless the following circumstances: They are out of work They are really unhappy in their present job The company is offering great career prospects or training They have relocated to an area where the average salary is lower than where they have moved from. Candidates that live in London and the south of England often receive higher salaries than those in Wales. Therefore, psychologically, candidates feel good about getting a wage increase, even if it is small. This is something you really need to be absolutely sure about before you make an offer. Many offers get declined because companies offer the candidate less than the candidate is being paid or less than the client was looking for. Companies often do this to see if they can get the candidate for less money, but what happens in reality is the candidate feels insulted that they are offered less money than they are either earning or looking for. This is short sighted because if the candidate pulls out, the company obviously thought they were the best candidate for the job and they now have to start again so what they may have saved in salary they will lose in going back to the drawing board again.

4 When putting together an offer for a candidate it is important to take into consideration their benefits package. If you are offering the candidate a salary increase but you offer less holidays it may equal the same and may not be worth the candidate moving. Years ago I made an offer on behalf of a client to a candidate. It was a salary increase for the candidate but the candidate calculated that the prospective employer s hours of work were more and when he broke it down per hour he was worse off. It was an important lesson for me to learn as I had to start again! In order to attract and retain staff, companies are now looking at improving their benefits packages and this can be an important factor when considering moving jobs. From GPRS s experience, the following benefits are taking into consideration by the candidate: How many days holiday is offered (20 days plus statutory eight days is standard) Car allowance or company car how much per annum or what vehicle will be provided? Pension what percentage does the employer contribute? Mileage how much per mile? Is the mileage paid from home or from the office? Any other benefits, such as gym, life assurance, etc. etc. Continual Professional Development training. The Candidate s Motivators A candidate will only join your company if you are offering them something that they want or something that solves a problem. If they are happy in their present job then the likelihood is the only thing they will move for is for more money, which is dangerous if there is nothing else about the role or the company that motivates them to move. A candidate must be motivated to move for one reason or another, or they will not move. We covered this in more depth in Conducting Professional. How to use a Candidate s Motivators Effectively As part of your interview process you need to make a list of what the candidate s motivators to move. Next to each motivator to move write down what your company or the role has to offer to satisfy that motivator. For instance, if the candidate wants to move because they are travelling 50 miles to work each day and your office is only 15 miles away, sell this to them. You are in effect selling your role to the candidate and the most effective way to do this is to remind the candidate what they told you they were looking and match it to what you have to offer.

5 Making an Offer You want the candidate to accept, therefore making an offer is like selling you need to sell the candidate the benefits of coming to work for your company. You need to spend some time planning what to say to make your offer an attractive proposition. This includes the candidate s motivators as detailed above. GPRS make the initial offer to the candidate but often recommend that once the candidate accepts, the client calls them to finalise everything. This makes the candidate feel as though the client really cares about them joining their company and they are being treated as an individual and not just another employee. Make the Candidate Feel Special Whilst getting a job offer can be exciting for a candidate, it can also be scary. They are potentially going to be leaving the known and moving to the unknown. It could be a great move, or they could be moving out of the frying pan into the fire as the saying goes. You want the candidate to know you think they are special and therefore more likely to accept your offer. So tell the candidate: Why did they stand out from the other candidates? What did you particularly like about the candidate? Why do you think they would fit into your company? Why do you think they would be good at the job? Then go on to make the offer to the candidate. Make an initial offer: Job Title Location Salary Hours Remind the candidate of what they said they were looking for in their next career move and what you are offering to match that. And anything else about the role that you know the candidate was particularly interested in. Ask the candidate what their thoughts are and if they are going to accept? Tell them how pleased you are that they are going to be joining your company and go through the remainder of the offer such as: How many days holiday is offered (20 days plus statutory eight days is standard) Car allowance or company car how much per annum or what vehicle will be provided? Pension what percentage does the employer contribute? Mileage how much per mile? Is the mileage paid from home or from the office? Any other benefits, such as gym, life assurance, etc. etc Continual Professional Development training If the candidate declines your offer, then ask why. You may be able to overcome their objections.

6 Check for Icebergs Once you have made the offer and the candidate has accepted, you need to check for icebergs. You need to find out if there is anything else going on in the candidate s life that would prevent them joining your company: What other interviews or applications do you have in the pipeline? How does the role here and our company compare with other applications? Is there anything that could prevent you accepting the role here if offered holidays, operations, personal circumstances? Counter Offers You have made an offer to a candidate because you feel they are the one that is most suited for your company in terms of skills, experience and personality fit. If you think they are good, the chances are their current employer (if they are employed) will think the same and may want to prevent them leaving. Larger companies have calculations of how much it costs to replace a member of staff and they use this expense as a key reason why they counter offer employees who resign. It is cheaper often to offer a candidate that resigns an increase in salary than to recruit another person. Costs include: Management time managing the recruitment process Placing an advertisement / agency fee Induction time Reduced productivity whilst the candidate gets up to speed Lack of morale in the office if the leaver is popular Other employees wondering if the leaver is going to somewhere better! If you ve interviewed a candidate and made an offer, which the candidate has accepted, you will be extremely disappointed to find that when the candidate handed in their notice, their existing employer made them a counter offer and the candidate decided to stay. Candidates frequently accept a counter offer for the following reasons: Their existing employer flatters them by telling them how important they are to the company and how they are irreplaceable. Their existing employer asks how much they have been offered and offers slightly more if they stay. The existing employer asks the reason why they are leaving and offers to rectify the situation. The candidate often prefers to stay with the devil they know as opposed to joining the devil they don t know. Sadly, you will have invested a considerable amount of time in the recruitment of this candidate and if they don t join your company, you will no doubt be extremely disappointed.

7 The best way to prevent counter offers is to anticipate and prevent them. When you ve made your offer test the water by asking the candidate: When will you resign? Who will you have to hand in your notice to? Will you do it face to face or in writing? What do you think they will say? What will they have to offer you to make you stay? Hopefully, the candidate will be committed to joining your company and will tell you there is nothing their employer can offer them to make them stay. However, just to make sure they don t accept a counter: Remind the candidate why they told you they wanted to leave Remind the candidate what you are offering that matches the candidate s motivators Sell your company and the opportunity to them again Tell the candidate that a good candidate like them is likely to get a counter offer from their employer because their employer isn t going to want to lose them but they need to remember that lots of companies make counter offers because it is cheaper to pay someone a bit more money than replace them which is far more costly 80% of candidates who accept a counter offer leave within six months as whilst the employee received a wage increase leopards don t change their spots the things the candidate disliked about the company or role are still the same. Closing Now you ve: Made the offer Matched motivators Tested for icebergs Approached counter offers It is time to close for commitment. Time to just finalise your conversation: Just to confirm: If we get the offer letter out today by , when do you think you can sign and return it? When will you be handing your notice in? When do you think you will be able to join us? Agree the next step you will phone the candidate or you want the candidate to phone you? Remind the candidate why you are looking forward to them joining you make them feel special.

8 Offer Letters Many candidates, quite rightly will not hand in their notice until they receive a formal offer of employment. Therefore, it is vital that having spoken to the candidate and made an offer and created some excitement with the candidate and made them realise that it going to be a great career move joining your company, the offer letter is raised quickly while the candidate is still excited about moving As an agency, we often hear of instances where after the offer has been made, a week later, the candidate is still waiting for a formal offer letter and they withdraw either because this gives them their impression the company is unprofessional. Research, as part of the Good Recruitment Campaign, conducted by the REC echoes this. If you reliant on someone raising the offer letter and contract of employment and this is likely to cause a delay, one way around it would be to send an offer covering the key points. You should also say in the when the candidate should receive the offer letter. If they know it is going to be a week, you are managing their expectations and not causing disappointment. Creating favourable impressions at this stage is as important as creating them at the beginning of the recruitment process when you are trying to attract a candidate. Reference Taking GPRS always take references for any new member of their team. In an ideal world we talk directly to the Line Manager of the candidate as that is the person who would know how effective they were. However, it is some company s policy to only give references through Human Resources and the reference will just be a confirmation of the dates of employment and the job title. GPRS strongly recommend clients take references for their prospective employees and ideally speak to the Line Manager of the company they are leaving or a company they have worked for previously. Character references are usually from friends and how many friends do you know who would say bad things about their friends. The time to take a reference is when the candidate has accepted the role with your company. Your offer letter would normally include saying something to the effect of, this offer is provisional upon satisfactory references being obtained. It is common courtesy to ask the candidate who you can approach for references and tell them when you will be taking them. The candidate then can ask the referee if it is OK that they are contacted for a reference.

9 Structuring Taking a Reference Introduce yourself to the referee and ask if they would kindly provide you with a verbal reference for (Give the candidate s name) Confirm the job title of the candidate Confirm the dates the candidate was employed by the company Confirm the reasons for leaving How frequently was the candidate late for work? How frequently did the candidate take time off for sickness? What were the candidate s duties? What were the candidate s strengths? What were the candidate s weaknesses? How did the candidate get along with their colleagues? Thank the referee for their time. If the referee s company policy is only to provide written references provided either by themselves or through HR, then you will need to create a Reference Taking Form to send. Always make sure you get the name and job title of the person you have to send it to. Put a note in your diary to chase if it doesn t get returned. Some agencies offer reference taking as a value added service for the placement of permanent candidates. GPRS do not do this because they believe that the client is better to do this themselves to get a better picture of the candidate. I certainly wouldn t want to anyone to take references for someone I was going to employ. I d prefer to get the information straight from the horse s mouth. Resignation Management Once the candidate has resigned and given you a start date many companies sit back and wait for the day to come that the candidate will join the company. With our 10 year s recruitment experience, GPRS s Market Specialists know that the resignation period is a funny time psychologically for the candidate: The candidate feels guilty for leaving a company. The candidate feels sad to be leaving colleagues. The candidate feels worried that they have made the right decision. If the candidate s details are still on agency databases and job boards the candidate will probably continue to be tempted by other opportunities. The candidate s present employer may continue to try to guilt trip them or offer them incentives to stay.

10 What this means is that even if the candidate has accepted the role, they could still back out. Therefore, from the time the role is accepted by the candidate GPRS recommend that clients keep in touch with candidates to see how they are and keep them interested. It is great if the client can do something to make the candidate feel part of the team so the first day doesn t seem so daunting. Any of the following are great ways to integrate the new employee: Invite the candidate for lunch with the new team. Invite the candidate for drinks after work with the new team. Invite the candidate in for a half day to learn about the role. Send the candidate some homework. If you have made an offer to a candidate and they have accepted, you will have invested a lot of time into finding them. Keeping in touch with the candidate and creating ways to amalgamate them into your team protects your investment.

11 Helen Wilson FIRP Sales Director Career Background Helen Wilson is a Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development Professionally Qualified Sales and Management Trainer with 20 years experience within the recruitment industry. Additional professional studies with the CIPD have included Certificate in Recruitment and Selection and the Advanced Programme in the Psychology of Management and Leadership. Unlike many who fall into recruitment, Helen wanted to work into recruitment so when an agency told her she needed sales experience to work in recruitment, she told them to get her a job in sales. The sales job was Yellow Pages and Helen undertook their highly accredited sales training programme. This gave her the grounding to secure a role with an international recruitment group, where Helen won many awards, including the UK s top billing Contracts Consultant. After 10 years in recruitment, with a sound track record behind her, Helen decided that training would offer her the flexibility to fit in with family life (a husband, two boys, five gun dogs and three horses). Following obtaining the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) to obtain her Certificate in Training Practice, Helen worked for a couple of specialist recruitment training companies before going freelance and forming Helen Wilson Training Consultancy. A role as Contract Training Manager, led to Helen being offered the role of Regional Director with Concept Resourcing. This role was multi-faceted and involved recruiting, training and managing five teams across various niche markets. Operating within some of the UK s toughest trading conditions meant Helen had to design training to make the team as effective as possible. In July 2013 many of Helen s old freelance clients had come out of the recession, alive and kicking, if not a little battered and began to contact Helen as they now wished to begin to build their companies again and needed their staff training. One of these clients was the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for, eresponse Group. A recruitment company that is working towards becoming one of the UK s largest training providers At GPRS Helen has worked with GPRS on and off for nearly 10 years, and admired their high standards and determination to provide their team with the skills to stand out from their competitors in the Work Based Learning and Training Sector. This dedication to achieving excellence has gained GPRS many awards over the years, including: Investors in People Gold Status, Investors in People Champion Status, Winners of the Best People Development Award in the 2016 IRP Awards, and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation Audited Recruitment Company (one of only a handful in the UK). Helen is responsible for continually developing the existing team to ensure those high standards for which GPRS is known are maintained, as well as taking the next generation of recruitment consultants through the comprehensive GPRS induction and continual professional development programme. Helen can be contacted on helen@gprs.uk.com