How to Create a Job Offer that Gets a “Yes”

Competition for top talent has always been high, but right now, it appears to have hit a fever pitch with a limited supply of quality technology candidates. In times like these – when the cream of the digital crop have multiple opportunities – how do you ensure you can create a job offers that stands out from the crowd?

The answer lies in carefully personalising your job offer, alongside tweaking your recruitment process to enable you to move quickly. Here’s how.

Fine Tune Your Recruitment Process to Create a Job Offer than Wins

When it comes to snapping up the best in a highly competitive market, your enemy is a slow hiring process, as it gives that exemplary candidate too much time to accept another opportunity. To negate this, consider the following:

1. Remove any impediments to decision making

Before advertising for the role, set the salary and secure any internal approvals. You might like to also add some buffer into your budget in case you find an outstanding candidate that seeks a little more than your asking price, or consider what else you can offer that might induce them to accept.

2. Set up a solid and streamlined recruitment process

Think about your timeline for interviews, follow-ups, and the offer stage, keeping them as tight as possible to maintain the hiring momentum. Ensure everyone involved is on the same page in understanding the role’s requirements and hiring criteria.

You could draw on the expertise of specialist recruiters here, particularly as they already have best practice recruitment processes in place, vast interview experience, and key insights into the Technology & Digital industry (not to mention a host of available and passive candidates).

3. Perfect your post-interview follow-up (not the job offer)

One of the most common recruitment mistakes our clients make is to end an interview on vague terms, failing to let the interviewee know just how interested you are and not informing them of the next steps. This leaves the door open for that great applicant to move on with their job search, and perhaps accept another hot opportunity before you get back to them.

This is why communication is key, including providing quality feedback to those top candidates directly after the interview (or even better, ask your recruiter to relay it). Let them know your timeframe for getting back to them, and connect when you say you will.

4. Be decisive

A slow job offer process risks losing your first-choice candidate to a competitor, so aim to decide as quickly as you can and make the offer promptly. To speed things up further, you could make a verbal offer that is conditional on satisfactory reference checks.

Personalise the Package

The best candidates know they’re in high demand, and naturally, look for things to differentiate between companies. While it’s imperative to benchmark the salary against the industry standard, what you offer by way of additional compensation could be the thing that sets you apart and gets them to say ‘yes’.

The key lies in customising your offer to the candidate. Interviews are an ideal opportunity to uncover which benefits are most important to them. When fine-tuning your job offer, circle back to the interview and select the most relevant components for that applicant if it’s possible to do so. It not only demonstrates you’ve heard them during the interview stage, but that you value their talent by being willing to tweak their package to meet their wishes.

There are many options when it comes to compensation. For instance:

Financial – bonuses or stock options
Professional development – learning additional coding languages, working with new technologies or developing leadership capabilities
Extra holiday entitlements
Flexible working conditions

As the total compensation package is such a crucial area, you may benefit from connecting with a Technology & Digital recruitment specialist, such as the team here at Sourced. We can provide advice around salary, additional benefits, as well as extra insights into what top candidates are really looking for.

Deliver the Offer Quickly and Persuasively

While the package components are important, so is your timing and delivery. Moving quickly is vital, so once you’ve made your decision, you can make a verbal offer over the phone and then follow up with the contract via email.

Here are a few tips on how to create a job offer by phone:

Explain why you chose them and why you feel they’ll add value to your team.
Detail the compensation package, honing in on the personalised aspects, and include the start date.
Ask for their feedback and discuss an acceptance deadline (usually three to five days).
Advise the contract will follow via email.

Following this, perform any necessary pre-employment and reference checks, and then send out an email with the contract for electronic signing. It should contain their official job title and description, their formal start date (and end date if it’s a contract role), any conditions or actions they need to take prior to starting and a deadline for their response.

Once you have the signed contract back, you can breathe a big sigh of relief. But in the meantime, you could always line up your second choice and get their offer ready, just in case your first candidate declines.

It’s worth noting that working with a recruiter can take a lot of the hassle and stress out of the job offer process, particularly when it comes to managing salary negotiations and making verbal and email offers.

Need Extra Help?

Here at Sourced, we can help you unearth the best IT candidates, whether you’re based in Christchurch or Auckland. With over a decade working as specialists in Technology & Digital recruitment, we’d love to help you find your best fit and show you how to make a job offer so attractive that your top candidate simply can’t refuse.