Should HR or Hiring Managers Handle the Offer Process?
February 15, 2008
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....
Kris,
I've never heard of a hiring manager who couldn't make a phone call to deliver good news. If they can't do that, then I doubt that they can deliver a negative performance review or discipline an employee.
Frank Giancola
Posted by: Frank Giancola | February 15, 2008 at 08:11 AM
I agree that the manager should make the call, but in my experience it falls to HR far more often than not.
Posted by: Bruce | February 15, 2008 at 08:22 AM
As long as someone in HR made it perfectly clear to the manager he should call the candidate to offer (and WHY - some managers truly don't know the why behind this) then I would say your assessment may be correct.
If not, it might be a communication error...perhaps he called him and the candidate wanted to look at the actual document prior to accepting (I've done this many times in my own career). But his communication to you was just the part about the email.
At any rate, I totally agree the hiring manager should make the offer. I went to an interview recently for an HR Generalist position and the hiring manager asked ONE question while her subordinate asked all the rest. It made me feel like the subordinate was going to be in charge of this position - but she wasn't. It was weird and it made the manager seem weak in my eyes. I'm all for team interviews but I want to know if I like the manager first.
Posted by: HR Wench | February 15, 2008 at 12:40 PM
The best course of action is for the hiring manager to make a personal call. The prospective employee will have the greatest connection to the hiring manager, if employed, so the connection should start with this significant event. Also, an e-mail is too impersonal.
If the HR department makes the call, there probably isn't much difference. You probably won't lose many candidates in doing so. HR does a better job of selling the company, has greater knowledge of its HR programs, and has more experience with people who want to negotiate their compensation and benefits.
E-mails are ok for people at lower levels and it hasn't been proven that you lose them by using them. They have the advantage of putting the offer in writing, which is a concern to some people have.
Duane
Posted by: Duane Kuypier | February 16, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Frank - Happens all the time in the field. Entry level managers, old pros who are very good, a lot of them have problems with this step. Some are simply introverted, a lot don't want to deal with what feels like confrontation when the candidate wants to ask for more money.
HRW - When I proofed the post, I wondered if I wasn't clear enough on what we tell them. We tell them verbally and in writing that the expectation is that they make the offer verbally. Many of those that call are probably praying for voicemail...
Duane - I agree that I don't think we would lose many candidates by making the offer. I just think this is the right way to do it, the self-actualizing way for the organization...
But I still beat my head against the wall when it goes like this....
Thanks - KD
Posted by: Kris | February 16, 2008 at 04:04 PM
As someone who came from the 3rd party recruiting field into the corporate recruiting world, I still practice the same philosophies. Prior to turning the last phone call over to my dept. head, I'll have the pre-close conversation with the candidate to be sure they are on board with the offer, prior to actually having the manager extend the verbal offer via phone. With some of my manager we will make the call together, some as a training excercise and some as a confidence builder for them. In today's marketplace, I leave nothing to chance, if it's a candidate we want!
Posted by: Joe Vickrey | February 19, 2008 at 10:24 AM
At our organization, verbal and written offers of employment come from HR. This ensures the consistency and timeliness of offers made with policies, procedures and legal obligations. HR practitioners and managers are jointly involved in the recruitment and selection process and HR Practitioners are treated as an extension of the business unit they support. There is therefore no reason to have the hiring manager make the offers of employment.
Posted by: George Kraldis | February 19, 2008 at 01:11 PM
The goals are: 1) make it a cordial and appealing experience for the applicant; 2) say *exactly* what you mean, leaving nothing ambiguous; and 3) be sure that the person making the offer speaks for the company, and isn't improvising unless authorized to do so.
As long-time head of HR for an S&P500 company in Silicon Valley, our HR recruiters made the offer as a rule, and line managers made it as the exception. Might have done it differently elsewhere, but the wars for talent in Silicon Valley never abated, and to lots of candidates, everything is negotiable. Way too easy for a panicky supervisor to get tongue-tied with an assertive applicant and agree to something that's hard for the company to ratify, or that's unfair to the people already in the job.
With key positions and complex compensation packages, we'd huddle to script the offer, sometimes having a senior compensation person meeting with the applicant.
If a production manager is hiring her / his 27th standard-paid process operator or assembler, and wants to be the face associated with the offer, that's fine, after appropriate training and rehearsal. But mostly, we felt we increased the odds of saying what we meant if an HR person explained the offer and handled the applicant's Q&A.
Posted by: Geronimo | February 19, 2008 at 02:01 PM
Interesting perspectives shared by all - love the two sides of the coin being equally represented both for the corporate recruiter and the hiring manager in extending the offers.
At my present organization and with many that I have serviced in the past, the recruiter has always been the one to extend with the hiring manager only jumping in and owning the extension piece if they are as was mentioned previous, an outgoing individual that understands and appreciates the effect that these types of suttle nuances might have on potential new hires, and the importance of 'presentation' in insuring the candidate hire is a done deal.
I have heard others in the past look to encourage just sending the package or extending the offer before you know what the response would be and I have to say - not a fan of that type of methodology- someone once said - think it was a lawyer or something - never ask a question that you don't already know the answer to. I'd say good practice moving forward - never extend until the candidate is saying 'YES, Yes, YES' five ways to Sunday (or however that saying goes) -
Another aspect to consider that feedback is appreciated on would be in regards to the physical act of extending - extending verbally over the phone - assuming candidate accepts the role or is at least somewhat interested, a formal offer package is generated and delivered to the candidate - recently I had heard that some do not put the time aside to create a physical offer package and mearly email
offer docs to candidates to offer position - my thoughts on this - The effort required to generate a physical 'offer package' and the time / dollars necessary to overnight the package to the candidate is minimal in comparison to the impression to the employee that not only did we want them to work for us, but that we 'care enough to send the very best' - any feedback on the physical offer vs the emailed offer is greatly appreciated
Posted by: KT | February 26, 2008 at 11:18 AM
1. While hiring the HR Manager for any IT organization what are the main 3 terms Hiring Mgr should ask.
2. While hiring the HR Executive what are the 3 main terms ...
3. While hiring the Senior person in the organization (i.e. Operation mgr/CEO)...what would be the questions.
Waiting for your valuable reply in this regard...
Posted by: Puneet | November 01, 2008 at 09:58 AM