How To Turn It Around When Candidates Turn Down Your Job Offer

Believe it or not, these days it is not uncommon for many organizations – particularly small businesses – to feel the strain of stiff competition for qualified workers. In a strong economy with low unemployment, the pool of job seekers constricts significantly. The engineering industry, in particular feels this pain acutely.

If your organization is struggling to turn job offers into job acceptances, there are a number of proactive steps that you can take to increase the odds of your ideal candidate becoming an ideal employee.

Find Out The Buzz on Your Business Online

Now more than ever, job seekers are empowered with inside knowledge about your organization. A wealth of information about your company’s inner workings and leadership, processes and policies, strengths and weaknesses are merely a simple Internet search away.

It is imperative that you plug into online databases and review websites to get a clear picture of what prospective employees are reading about your company. Follow-up with an internal review to determine which claims are legitimate and which claims are the ramblings of disgruntled former employees. You can’t change every negative review, but you can course correct on the things that matter and address these changes with prospective candidates during those crucial discussions on your company’s culture.

Reexamine Your Hiring Process

Of course, it is in your organization’s best interest to be thorough with its hiring process – you want the best candidates possible to win out. Take some time to think about your hiring process from the candidate’s perspective. Lengthy processes can be off-putting to job seekers, particularly when they unfold with little or no communication from the main organization.

If your company follows an extensive hiring procedure that includes a detailed application, multiple rounds of interviews, background checks and even more interviews before candidates even reach the salary negotiation stage, try to find areas in the process where you can streamline the process. Consider combining interviews with key company personnel to cut down on the number of individual interviews. Try conducting background checks upon completion of the application to speed up the process.

Maintain Lines of Communication

Sometimes a lengthy hiring process is an absolute requirement – this is particularly true for engineering, construction and environmental industries. In these cases, it is vital that your organization maintain open lines of communication with prospective candidates. Let them know where you are in the hiring process. Provide them with anticipated completion dates and deadlines.

This may represent a small shift in your hiring process, but it can have an enormous impact on prospective candidates’ positive perception of your organization and reflects well on your company’s overall culture. It could make the difference between getting a yes to your job offer or getting turned down.

Ask Why Not

When you get turned down by your dream candidate, don’t hesitate to politely and professionally ask why he or she rejected your offer of employment. The answers you receive will likely be varied and range from compensation and company culture or just getting a better offer elsewhere, but the information you discover can pay dividends in terms of how you conduct the hiring process with future prospects.

Finding the ideal candidate for your organization can be difficult, particularly in the highly-specialized construction, engineering and environmental industries. Using a firm like Webuild Staffing to partner with in finding top-tier talent may help.

Michael DeSafey is a leading executive recruiter for professionals in the construction, engineering and environmental industries. He is currently the President of Webuild Staffing www.webuildstaffing.com . To learn more about Michael or to follow his blog please visit www.michaeldesafey.com