After hours of asking phone interview questions and running in person interviews, you’ve found your top-choice candidate, now it’s time to seal the deal. Your offer letter is the last piece of the recruitment puzzle before a candidate decides whether or not they want to work for your organization. How can you increase your chances of winning your top-choice candidate for your team?
Precede your offer letter with a phone call
Once you’ve decided to extend an offer, call your candidate to let them know. Verbally discuss the details outlined below, and ask the candidate if they have any questions. Let them know you will be following up with a formal offer letter, and find out when you might expect to hear back with a decision. If you don’t immediately build that official offer, you might lose your candidate. So move quickly to give them a better experience!
Express your excitement
Landing a new job is exciting for your candidates—and finding a dream candidate should be exciting for you, too! Let your candidate know how thrilled you are to present them with an offer of employment. Explain the specific reasons you chose them and how you feel they’d be able to contribute to your organization. You’re more likely to win your top-choice candidate when they feel like they’d be a valued member of your team.
Circle back on candidate motivations
Interviewing is a two-way street, and you need to impress your candidates as much as you expect them to impress you. Learning your candidate motivations early in the recruitment process can help you sell your role to candidates. Circle back on those motivations in the offer letter, explaining how your organization is a great fit for what the candidate is looking for in their next role.
Include competitive compensation
While money isn’t always a motivating factor in finding a new job, it can play an important role in a candidate’s decision to accept your offer. The biggest reason candidates decline a job offer is that compensation and benefits were not in line with their expectations. The second biggest reason is that they received another offer, and 50% of those candidates chose the offer with higher compensation. Discuss compensation expectations early in the recruitment process to make sure you’re on the same page as your candidates, and include a competitive salary in their offer letter.
Build in benefits and perks
Round out your compensation package by sharing your employee benefits and perks. 60 percent of candidates are likely to take a job with a lower salary but better employee benefits. An avid traveler, for instance, may prefer ample time off and travel discounts to a higher salary. Let the candidate know what you offer in terms of basics like insurance and paid time off. Also share any additional benefits you offer, such as professional development, parental benefits, and fun employee perks.
Reiterate your excitement
End your letter by reiterating your excitement to present an offer of employment. Let the candidate know that you hope to hear of their decision soon, and that you’ll follow up in a few days if they don’t reach out sooner. Once the candidate accepts your offer, continue building off the excitement with a welcome letter and new hire orientation. Now that you’ve won your top-choice candidate, you need to focus on retaining them.
Conclusion
Your offer letter is the final step in the recruitment process before a candidate decides whether they want to work for your organization. Inject some extra excitement into your offer letter to ensure that your candidate gleefully accepts your offer. There’s nothing more important than having the right people in your organization, and you want to use this last, critical step to win them over.