Recently, I’ve been talking to a lot of candidates. While I was interviewing a good candidate, he said he had rejected an offer from another company. You know why? They never did a follow-up after the offer. He got the impression that if the company didn’t care now, they wouldn’t care for him when he joined them either! Really. That’s got me thinking. Is post-offer follow-up that such a big deal? Yes, off course. It’s like good post-sales customer service.
Most often recruiters are caught in a frenzy to identify ‘right-fit’ candidates (yes, there could be many, you may need just one!), run them through grinding interviews and end up selecting the best to make the job offer. Once the selected candidate has been offered, the tendency is to move on to another open job requirement to be filled. That’s good. But what happens next to the offered candidate? The requirement isn’t closed unless he shows up at the door on the agreed date of joining your organization.
Post-offer interactions are just as necessary. There’s so much time & effort spent (from far too many people) in hiring one candidate. If that candidate decides not to join, everyone’s efforts will then need to be replicated! The issue isn’t with the candidate not joining your organization; it’s with recruiters or even hiring managers who allow that to happen in the first place.
It’s a no-brainer. But here’s why you should keep the interactions active:
- It gives the candidate confidence that you are interested in him joining & that he can make a difference.
- Reduces chances of him talking to your competitors.
- There will be tons of questions that the candidate might have; your interactions will help him take informed decisions.
- Send across company related non-confidential articles/news will help the candidate to get to know your company better.
Just don’t go over the top while interacting (like call the candidate every waking hour). There’s nothing more harmful than an overdose of information.
