Recruiting is selling, simple as that. Especially when you are seeking candidates who don't have to take your offer...
When the talent you are pursuing has options, the whole recruiting process is Marketing 101. The
employment brand on your website, first contact with the prospect, follow-up, selling the advantages of the position and your company, etc.
And when it's time to make the offer? That's closing time, baby! Time to wrap all the advantages up in a package and make the candidate feel like they can't afford not to take the offer.
Or, you could just take the offer package professionally prepared by your friendly HR team, email it to the candidate without calling, and hope they accept. Preferably without them calling you to accept.
But I digress....
My team works with hiring managers throughout the recruiting process. When it's time to make the offer, we do a professional package, forward it to the hiring manager, and ask them to call the candidate to make a verbal offer. The documents are to be forwarded to the candidate after the verbal offer is made. All designed to put our best foot forward - and to increase the probability of an accepted offer.
So imagine my surprise when I got the following email from a manager once we gave him an offer packet for a tasty new hire:
"Offer forwarded to candidate's email address, will let you know the response".....
I wish I could say this has only happened once. No mention of the verbal offer via phone call that's supposed to happen before. You know why? Because the manager in question put the "I" in introvert. He didn't make the call to make the verbal offer because he didn't want the interaction. It's not something he's good at, so he skipped it.
And that's OK. Not everyone has "closer" in their DNA. Those who don't are skilled in other areas...
I've always been a little stubborn in this area. My theory is that HR doesn't need to be all "command and control". If an employee is going to work for a manager, I suspect they'd like to see the offer coming from the manager. If I was the manager, I'd want them to know the decision to hire was mine - thus setting up all the good things that can happen in the employee/manager relationship.
But then I get an email like the one above from a manager, and I again realize that a lot of people don't want the responsibility.
So maybe I'll compromise and encourage managers to make the verbal, but step in do it on behalf of those who want nothing to do with it.
I'm getting full of compromise in my old age....
