Don’t lose your ideal new hire on the homestretch with a weak job offer.
You’ve worked hard to recruit great job candidates. You’ve built an intentional interview process and narrowed the candidate pool down to a person who is a great fit for your team. Don’t fumble the hiring process now!
Now is the time to invite your ideal candidate into a compelling story with a great job offer.
Invite them into the mission
Throughout the hiring process I’ve encouraged you to be mission-centric, and making a job offer is yet another opportunity to talk about your mission.
It is not enough to mention your business’ mission one time and then never again. It’s a drum that you need to beat relentlessly, and this is especially true for new hires. By now, you’ve told them about your mission several times. And that’s good, because you’re really leading an exercise in memorization. You want them to know and believe in the mission.
Beyond that, you need to make it clear that you’re offering them the privilege of working on this mission with you. Your job offer should clearly invite them into the mission and remind them of their vital role in working to accomplish it.
Next, you’ve got to make the benefits of participating in the mission clear and compelling.
Build a compelling compensation plan
This element of the offer is highly dependent on your company and the role you’re hiring for, but let me give you a couple of guiding principles.
First, do not get too hung up on benefits! If you’ve been mission-centric in your process, then your candidate should be motivated by the mission you’re on and not only in the benefits. You are not Google or corporate America and you do not have to compete with corporate benefits packages. If you want to and can afford to, that’s great! But don’t feel like you have to. Remind the candidate that you are not corporate America - you actually care about your team and you won’t fire them just to keep shareholders happy.
Second, you should offer competitive and aggressive compensation for the position that beats similar pay ranges in the market. You’ve done a lot of work to find the ideal candidate so you don’t want to lose them by offering too little. A person who embraces your mission and sticks around for the long haul is worth paying really well.
If you’ve done a good job of inviting the right person into your mission and you’ve put together a compelling compensation plan, then your candidate will probably be excited to join your team.
Make it easy for them to accept the job
The tone you set right here at the job offer stage is the same tone that you’ll carry into the first days and weeks of your new hire’s job.
So, you’ve got to make that experience positive and easy to say “yes” to. This begins with a clear plan of next steps. Give them three simple steps to accept this offer and clarity around what will happen next. For example:
Joining our team is simple!
- sign and return this offer letter
- we’ll work together to set up a start date
- your onboarding package will arrive in the mail so you can hit the ground running on your start day
Now they know exactly what to do and what will happen next.
How this will make and save you money.
Ultimately hiring a new team member is an investment in your team and your business.
Your new team member should eventually make you more money than they cost you. You’ve invested a lot of time and energy in finding the best candidate, so don’t fumble this at the finish line and waste all of that investment. Hire the best candidate with a compelling and clear job offer.
Your action steps
Build your job offer.
- invite the candidate into the mission and be clear about their role
- put together a compelling and competitive compensation plan
- make the next steps in the process clear and simple
Next time we’ll tackle how to set up your new team member for success on their very first day.
PS: Need help crafting your hiring process? I’d be thrilled to help. Set up a free 30-minute call.
To thriving,
Zach
