Providing a Job Offer Candidates Can't Refuse

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Presenting a Job Offer

As a manager, you will know how increasingly competitive and expensive it is becoming to find talented people across Auckland and Wellington; but finding the right people is only half the battle. High-calibre professionals often have several job offers to consider and failing to convince their first-choice candidate to accept their offer over a competitor’s has become a difficult reality for many employers. Here are four tips on how you can provide a job offer your candidates simply can’t ignore.

Benchmark Your Salaries

When it comes to evaluating a job offer, salary will be one of the highest priorities for most candidates. It is important that you put forward a package that aligns to their expectations. To achieve this, use guides such as our Market & Salary Report to benchmark your average salaries against the market. Whilst a lot of data goes into producing these reports, remember that they are only averages and your own salary packages should consider aspects such as supply and demand or urgency.

Working with a recruitment partner can help when you are negotiating a fair salary package. A recruiter should already have an idea of your budget and can ensure that the candidates you interview are within this range.

Consider Non-Financial Incentives

For many candidates, salary is not their only requirement. Non-financial benefits, such as flexible working hours, are becoming more important compared to salary and other factors in a job offer. Including sought-after incentives such as a car park or the ability to work from home can be an effective way to make your offer more appealing than a competitor’s.

Be Prepared to Re-evaluate

Many areas within New Zealand’s employment market are short on talent. For example, Seek has recently reported on the top 20 hardest roles to fill which shows that the Healthcare and Medical, and Legal industries are two sectors facing a talent shortage.

Industries with a tight supply of talent often result in candidates having a higher financial expectation, and if the salary range is not consistent with these expectations, your business may miss out. A solution here would be to raise the salary range to meet these expectations, however this can sometimes be outside of your control.

If changing the salary range is out of the question and the position is urgent, you may want to re-evaluate your requirements. 

Be Quick but Clear When Presenting Your Offer

A common mistake managers make is to wait until an official contract has been drafted before presenting an offer to their candidate of choice. Your first-choice candidate may accept another offer in the time it takes you to draft a formal contract.

Managers might also opt to wait until references or other pre-employment checks have been completed before presenting a written offer. Our advice here is that you should consider progessing with a verbal offer subject to the successful completion of these checks, and then follow up in writing once you have prepared the contract. 

Struggling to find great people for your team?

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