Offer declinations and candidate withdrawals are an unfortunate yet unavoidable part of recruiting. Candidates do have options. However, we can take steps to reduce these occurrences, or at least gain predictive intelligence so we can problem-solve and eliminate loss of ground. In my last two recruiting jobs (in-house talent acquisition at Land O’Lakes, and current consulting with 4Sight) – and out of the last 150 or so jobs I’ve closed – I’ve only had 3 declined offers at the end the process. And none of them took me by complete surprise. When it comes to closing-out sheer requisition volume, I’ll admit I typically ain’t the highest producer (though I did set an 18-year company record once). However, in the realms of closing percentage & retention, overall happiness of the new hire and their boss, and customer service (e.g. not wasting my client’s time) . . . that’s my and 4Sight’s bread & butter.

If you’re a business leader in a small company who’s actively involved with hiring in addition to your department deliverables, or an HR Generalist who also recruits, the following might be helpful. And if you’re a fulltime recruiter and this is ‘Recruiting 201’ for you, it’s always nice to have a quick refresher.

Conclude The Phone Interview With…

“So [Candidate], now that we’ve spoken, how are you feeling about this?” If they’re interested, ask them what specifically interests them. Allow a few minutes at the end for this dialogue. Phone interview guides always start with something fairly similar: “What made you want to apply to this job?” and that question’s purpose is indeed to gauge interest. Check again at the end. If you’re phone interviewing many people a day, this will act like a bucket of ice water to the face and keep you from missing key indicators from the candidate that you might overlook when it’s 4:00pm and you’re not at your sharpest mindset. It also gives you an opportunity to hear from the candidate again once you’ve explained the job in your own words, and their feedback is important to hear.

Push Toward & Pull Away

When I have a candidate interested in an opportunity, I push and pull. The “push” is the sell. We all do it when we see a good candidate who excites us. However, in your and also your candidate’s best interests, it’s important to “pull away” and really qualify their interest level. I do this with a few approaches and phrases:

• I encourage them take a day or two to think about it, even if I really want to submit them immediately (and recruiters, we all know that feeling when you just want to submit a rockstar immediately). I make them get back to me with their interest level after they’ve thought about it, researched the company, spoken with their family. And I realize that they might call me back and say ‘no thanks.’

• I try to talk them out of it, or at least step in their shoes. “It’s great to hear that you’re interested in this. But if I were you, I know I’d also be concerned with that commute / hesitant to leave when bonuses are this good / insert reason to get cold feet here.” And I realize that they might say, “Yeah you’re right. I guess doesn’t feel like the right timing yet. Sorry.” That stings especially if you’re the one who talked them out of it. However, you’ve just likely saved yourself, your candidate’s and your company’s time.

• I lay my position out, cards-up: “[Candidate], I’m happy to work with you in pursuing this. However, I cannot present candidates to my hiring team who are hesitant about any of the basic and fundamental stuff (relocating for this, the overall timing for you and your family, this particular company’s industry that you’d be engulfed in everyday, etc.). Of course at this point you don’t fully-know if the opportunity is right for you, but I need you to at least have all the basics hashed-out and comfortable on your end. As a recruiter, it’s my job to not waste my client’s time so I can’t have you back-out because of something that could have been more thoroughly considered at the beginning.” Sometimes I’ll add: “And as a business manager yourself I’m sure you’d appreciate that if I were serving you, right?”

I go back and forth on selling the job and challenging the candidate, sometimes until it feels awkward and I can tell the candidate is becoming annoyed. But in the end, the candidates tend to appreciate that I’m getting them to really think about things – the good and the bad. At least that’s what you’ve told me, right guys!? 🙂

Check-In Throughout

When you’ve got a million things going on, you cannot forget to check in and keep assessing throughout the rounds of interviews. “How was the meeting this time around?” “How are you feeling about this now?” (Sound familiar?) I ask this to again gauge interest level and at this point, predict offer acceptances, possible declines or even acceptances of counter-offers. I also ask because I simply care about the candidate and their experience with us. If throughout the weeks I sense that a candidate’s interest is diminishing, I alert my hiring teams and continue pounding the pavement, and have an open dialogue with my candidate as well.

The outcome? More intelligence. More prediction of outcome. Less declines. More hires. More business output!

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