A member of our team had a candidate recently who was, by every measure, a yes. Engaged through the process. Excited about the role. Said all the right things, and meant them. Then the offer went out, and a few days later it came back declined. Nothing had changed about the job. What changed was a conversation at a kitchen table we were never part of.
Sometimes the most important moment in a hiring process happens in a room you will never be in, and all you can do is find out about it after the fact. In our line of work this happens a lot. We’d guess it happens to many of our readers as well. And we fully expect that it will keep happening. It is situations such as these that inspired the name of this newsletter…
We spend all our energy on the person across the table and forget there is almost always someone else with a vote. A spouse. A partner. A parent. All whose opinion carries more weight than expected. The candidate is rarely deciding alone, even if it looks like they are.
A few things we’d offer based on our scar tissue:
- Ask early what a decision will look like. A simple “if an offer comes, is there anyone else you will be talking it through with?” People typically answer this honestly, and it tells you who else needs to feel good about this before it is real.
- Assume they will be selling the role to someone else (even if that someone is just themselves in the mirror). Give them a story to tell. The commute, the schedule, the why-this-makes-sense version of the role, not just the why-this-is-a-good-job version. Candidates are often great at selling themselves and terrible at re-explaining the opportunity to someone who wasn’t in the interviews. Help them help themselves.
- Surface concerns early. If something is going to be a sticking point, you want to know while there is still room to solve it. And if it is going to be a no, a fast no is far better than a slow one.
A declined offer at the last minute is almost never about the offer. It is about a conversation that happened somewhere you weren’t. The best thing you can do is make sure the candidate walks into that conversation ready.
Until next time,
Your Spherion WI & Northern IL team