Improving Offer Acceptance Rate and Candidate Retention in Recruitment Process

Hi,

I am in the software industry, and I am responsible for the recruitment process. I have some doubts. After sending out the offer letters, some candidates are not joining. How can we reduce this? Can you provide me with some suggestions on this?

If you have any PowerPoint presentations about the recruitment process, please forward them to me.

Regards,
YSRK Prasad

Are you saying that once you make an offer, your candidates are rejecting the offer? How are you making the offer verbally first - via phone and then following up with the offer package? Perhaps you are not highlighting the total compensation package to them clearly. It's hard to say what is wrong with the process without too much information.

Rekha

Hi Prasad,

I believe you have a minimum set of technical and HR rounds of interviews. Once a candidate passes the tech round, he should negotiate the salary part in his HR round. When you ensure that the candidate agrees orally, you give him the written offer letter. If this process goes smoothly, I think there should be no problem with the candidate escaping after receiving the offer letter.

If my point is not clear, please do suggest.

Thanks & Regards

Hi Prasad,

As said by Rekha, I think you are not making it clear about the total compensation package, which would solve the problem.

Regards

Prasad,

Well, the economics of demand and supply is coming your way. Companies are in a major hiring mode, and candidates are ensuring they make hay while the sun is shining. One of the fallout I personally have seen is the increasing number of "no shows". Most active job seekers are essentially looking to either renegotiate their terms at their current organization or fish for a bigger catch. Unless the candidate is "really" interested in your offer and organization, they will most likely go back to their current firm and check for a hike by showing or hinting at your offer OR keep looking out until they find a fatter pay packet.

Well, if you do all the things correctly, such as selling the "work", highlighting the "pay" (matching expectations), showing their "path" in the organization, extending a genuine warm welcome, and doing a good follow-up, the chances are that you may have the person on board. Make sure you are consistent in your mails with the individual through the notice period and extend all courtesies to check if they would need any support joining your organization. Do not count on candidates as "filled" post-offer; the actual job of recruiting in today's competitive market is good follow-through. Remember, there are tons of companies out there looking for these same folks.

Good luck...

Hi, Prasad.

The process is unknown to us. Yet, this kind of scenario exists in all small and medium enterprises across all geographies. Most often, we come across situations wherein the candidate accepts the offer letter to scale up his value in another relatively bigger organization to negotiate a larger salary. This offer letter is a tool in their hands.

People lose their employees—current and potential—to bigger players more often and face similar situations. Candidates tend to look for the following parameters often before joining:

- Brand
- Money
- Nature of work
- Designation
- Location
- etc.

Despite all this, people take interviews and accept offers. One reason is to find the market worth, and the other is to negotiate.

Negotiation can be with the existing employer or potential employer.

It's not the process that ends up faltering; the kind of person or companies from where you are picking up may be faltering.

Rethink the process again—how much brand or market visibility you have and how to increase the same? Maybe an assessment center will be of help or a psychometric tool.

Cheers,

Rajesh B

Valuelanes

Bangalore

98458 41000

Hi Prasad,

This will not happen immediately. This is the concern shared by numerous organizations.

The approach should include:

- Brand building - attracting good talents by projecting you as the best employer to work with.

- What you can offer - don't oversell and overpromise - keep that very clear.

- If you can carry out an analysis of the people who have not joined, quoting reasons - understand the gaps and wherever you can fill them.

- A salary survey can help you in terms of understanding your market positioning in terms of compensation.

- Employee referrals - this can be the best tool - your employees act as brand ambassadors and gain financially - what you pay off to consultants. Here the retention rate is relatively very high.

- Do a survey in your organization to find out the satisfaction level and fill gaps. This satisfies the existing crew for them to refer others.

- How do you differentiate yourself - If you belong to a product company, use that as the USP.

- Career planning and development - what are your measures and how the people are benefiting.

- What could be done during the selection process - to make a potential employee feel he will be taken care of - think something innovative like providing a greeting card before the person actually comes for the final interview / HR interview (this is just a suggestion - may be stupid!!).

- A psychometric analysis of an employee prior selection - knowing his values, steadiness, etc - (this is a costly affair for sure).

These are some of the ways which can help you increase the offer joining ratio.

The beginning point would be your analysis.

Why they did not join? Cause.

Where did they go? Competitor.

Why did they go? Comparison.

What could be done? Culmination.

The process is long and don't expect immediate results - then you will be frustrated.

Regards,

Rajesh B

098458 41000

Bangalore

Hi Rajesh!

I have one suggestion for you in this regard. To share with you, currently we are also facing the same situation, where people, after receiving offer letters, don't join afterwards. This is common in the case of freshers or candidates with fewer years of experience. The main reason for this may be that in IT, there are so many offers waiting for people. If the gap between the day the person is given an offer letter and the joining date is more significant, the candidate may receive another good offer in between and accept it. (That should actually be happening.)

Right now, we have come up with a solution to shorten such periods or issue offer letters/appointment letters only after the candidate joins (maybe 1-2 days later). And of course, not to forget, always be ready with some backup.

Regards, Shweta

Hi Shweta,

It appears to be good!

The mobile unit is often acting cranky when it comes to offering.

In your case, what is the confidence level we can demand amongst the candidates? I am unsure of that. The time frame needs to be reduced for sure.

My point would be looking at things from a long-term point of view - hence the causes are to be identified which will help in stopping the bleeding at crucial times.

The other way of looking at your approach - it explicitly depicts that your amount of trust in the candidate is minimal or negligible - the psyche of an ordinary person would wander like - if the company is not trusting me before I join, how can I trust them? How would the treatment be after I join?

(Please don't be offensive - I am not criticizing the approach - this is just my view)

I am interested in keeping the guy who is keen to be with me for a long range than a stop-gap arrangement. You can analyze the people who leave after your new approach - how much impact that creates on them too which may articulate a new strategy for you.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Cheers,

Rajesh B

098458 41000

Bangalore

Hi folks,

I am Krishnakanth from Hyderabad. I am working in a software company as the Manager of Staffing and Recruitment. For any further clarifications on recruitment, you can reach me at 9949088109 for presentations and questionnaires.

Hi,

I have read all the views given by members, but some of the suggestions are difficult to execute.

All those who do not join after accepting the offer do not always give the right reasons. In my case, four people refused to join on the scheduled date. The reasons they gave - mother not well, cannot relocate, some medical problem, starting own business - none of them really told us the real problem so that improvement can be made.

We can analyze reasons only if they speak the truth.

Solutions could be:

- Analyze if they give valid reasons for not joining.
- Do not give a long period to join.
- Tell them strictly that if they do not join on the mentioned date, the appointment will be canceled. At least we can start our search again.
- Take a reference from their existing organization and inform the candidate that we may speak to your present employer for the record.
- Make all the terms and conditions of your organization very clear (salary, other benefits, career plans, growth, brand, job profile) to the candidate at the time of giving the offer letter.
- Always select two persons for the position for backup purposes.

I hope this may help us.

Thanks