On Reflection…

One of the things I have noticed more and more on Linked In and when talking to people in the industry is the fact that candidate counter offers and candidates declining offers is becoming more and more prevalent. In our industry, we are all taught very quickly how to prevent and overcome counter offers. Commitment is a big area of focus in candidate generation, qualification and interviewing. If we, as recruitment professionals, don’t feel a candidate is fully committed or feel they are at risk of counter offer, we manage that accordingly. Irrespective of that, there are still occasions when we do everything we should have done and are still on the receiving end of a candidate declining an offer. We have all been there….just about to chill out with a glass of wine on a Friday evening, had a great week in work and the dreaded e mail arrives in your inbox.

Dear Natalie On reflection, I have decided to decline the offer…blah blah blah

We have all heard the millions of excuses which include genuine thought-out reasons to the absolute absurd. You really start to question your process, your own methods, could you have done anything differently, did you do everything right etc After 15 years in the recruitment industry I can honestly say I do everything correct but ultimately, at the candidate end of the process, we are a B2C interface. On the client side we are B2B but the candidate generation, qualification and control process is purely B2C and this has its challenges. Ultimately we all recognise that controlling people is difficult and when you are in a profession where you are interfacing with the general public it becomes even more challenging. What is absolutely vital as recruiters is that we don’t ‘react’ to such incidents in a negative or frustrated manner. Even though it doesn’t work to our advantage that a candidate may decline an offer, ultimately it is the right decision for them and therefore our client. So we need to just take it on the chin, dust ourselves off and find the correct solution for our client. Yes it means we have to re source the position and that is far from ideal, but by being positive, solution driven and focussing on the ‘can do’ element of things you will give the correct indication to your client that you will find the best solution for them. Ultimately the candidate wasn’t right for your client given their commitment has faltered. Of course we need to follow process and mitigate the risk as much as possible but if we do our jobs properly and find great candidates then they are, of course, going to be counter offered or receive competitive offers. In February every candidate that HJC put an offer to was counter offered, and yes 1 of them did accept that counter offer and yes we did find an alternative, much stronger candidate for our client AND we have maintained a good relationship with the candidate that declined. It is frustrating but everyone has their own lives and their own back story and things happen that you simply can’t plan for…irrelevant of how much you try. The key is to stay positive, be understanding and get back in the game.