How to Avoid Losing Candidates Between Acceptance and Start Date
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:13 am
The recruitment process doesn’t stop after the candidate has accepted the job. In fact the period between acceptance and start date is perhaps the time of greatest risk. Many companies recognise this but some think that once the candidate accepts a position, it’s a foregone conclusion that they’ll be there on the first day. Unfortunately this doesn’t always happen.
There is a significant investment in time from the company and the candidate to reach offer and acceptance stage. Candidates will also often have a month, three months or even six months’ notice to work from this point before they actually sit at their new desk. All manner of things can happen during this time. The following points are designed to help companies minimise the risks of losing candidates after acceptance, and to cut down on the associated costs.
Accept that candidates will be looking at other opportunities
When a candidate applies for a role at your company, it is generally as part of a wider job search. Unless the person has been specifically headhunted for one opportunity, there will be other interviews at other companies, and very likely other job offers as well. Candidates quite rightly keep their options open until a rock solid offer is received. This is usually in the form of an offer letter with full details of salary, benefits and other elements. Often, the employer does a great job of building rapport with the candidate, taking them through the interview process and delivering an offer, but then the relationship is effectively put on hold whilst the HR department processes the offer. This can be anything from a few days to a number of weeks. What happens in between to keep the candidate motivated to join? Often nothing at all.
In that time period, the candidate is open to any number of approaches and will also be denmark phone number resource finishing the process with other potential employers. This is the vital time to keep in contact and make sure that the candidate is fully aware that they are wanted and valued. You’ve worked hard to get them to accept the offer, so why blow the deal now?
Strengthen your employer brand
The strength of the employer brand is very important to both attracting and retaining excellent people. This also applies to people who have accepted an offer and are waiting to commence employment. When a candidate accepts an offer, they then have to resign which often leads to a counter offer. It can be very enticing to be offered more money to stay in a comfortable role. The employer brand and offering should be so attractive, however, that the candidate cannot think about any other option. If your organisation is an excellent place to work, with challenging projects and brilliant career development, is this being conveyed in your communications? If the candidate receives a counter offer, the next place to go might be back to your website to reassess how good your company is. Your employer brand has to scream opportunity and should convince any candidate to stick with it and join. If it doesn’t then you will lose people that you’ve invested a lot of time in.
There is a significant investment in time from the company and the candidate to reach offer and acceptance stage. Candidates will also often have a month, three months or even six months’ notice to work from this point before they actually sit at their new desk. All manner of things can happen during this time. The following points are designed to help companies minimise the risks of losing candidates after acceptance, and to cut down on the associated costs.
Accept that candidates will be looking at other opportunities
When a candidate applies for a role at your company, it is generally as part of a wider job search. Unless the person has been specifically headhunted for one opportunity, there will be other interviews at other companies, and very likely other job offers as well. Candidates quite rightly keep their options open until a rock solid offer is received. This is usually in the form of an offer letter with full details of salary, benefits and other elements. Often, the employer does a great job of building rapport with the candidate, taking them through the interview process and delivering an offer, but then the relationship is effectively put on hold whilst the HR department processes the offer. This can be anything from a few days to a number of weeks. What happens in between to keep the candidate motivated to join? Often nothing at all.
In that time period, the candidate is open to any number of approaches and will also be denmark phone number resource finishing the process with other potential employers. This is the vital time to keep in contact and make sure that the candidate is fully aware that they are wanted and valued. You’ve worked hard to get them to accept the offer, so why blow the deal now?
Strengthen your employer brand
The strength of the employer brand is very important to both attracting and retaining excellent people. This also applies to people who have accepted an offer and are waiting to commence employment. When a candidate accepts an offer, they then have to resign which often leads to a counter offer. It can be very enticing to be offered more money to stay in a comfortable role. The employer brand and offering should be so attractive, however, that the candidate cannot think about any other option. If your organisation is an excellent place to work, with challenging projects and brilliant career development, is this being conveyed in your communications? If the candidate receives a counter offer, the next place to go might be back to your website to reassess how good your company is. Your employer brand has to scream opportunity and should convince any candidate to stick with it and join. If it doesn’t then you will lose people that you’ve invested a lot of time in.