ENSURING THE NEW EMPLOYEE ACTUALLY DOES JOIN YOUR COMPANY

Even though the job offer you've made has been accepted, there are still potential risks which may mean that the candidate will not actually start with you. The key risks are:

• The contract of employment not being acceptable.
• The candidate accepting a counter-offer from their existing employer.
• The candidate accepting your offer but continuing to look for 'better opportunities'.

The Unacceptable Contract Of Employment:

In my experience this happens very rarely. Normally, the employer is aware of parts of the contract or expectations which may be troublesome and will cover them during the interview so that the employee is expecting and accepting-of the requirements.

For instance, many IT consultancies require that the employee is flexible on where they will work, meaning they could spend several months at a time working away and coming home at weekends only. For many this is acceptable and for those for whom it is not, it should have been made very clear at the outset of the process so they will not have even been interviewed.

If the contract is an issue and cannot be resolved by an amendment by the employer or an explanation to the candidate, it is, in my experience, generally because the candidate is not too keen on the role and the issue with the contract is being used as the reason not to take the role.

Accepting A Counter-Offer From Their Existing Employer:

If the candidate is going to be a key employee for you then it is very likely that they will be a key employee for their existing employer. Thus, it will be a surprise and an issue for the employer when they resign.

The typical thought process for the existing employer will be along the lines of: “how will I manage these activities and replace the employee?”, followed by “how can I keep them?”

The existing employer will have a very good idea about how to keep the employee because they will have worked with each other for some time and the employee will probably have been open about the reasons for moving when handing in their resignation. If the employer offers some more money and a change of role and plays on the loyalty that will have been engendered over time, there is a high risk it will result in the employee opting to stay with their existing employer and you having to carry out the search all over again.

To try and prevent this happening it is worth talking about the potential of a counter- offer in the interview and actively helping the candidate resign.

The time to talk about a possible a counter-offer is towards the end of the interview. The candidate will be comfortable with you by then and you will have been running through the opportunities for their personal development within your business and the goals for the business overall. Talking about the risks of accepting a counter-offer at this point can be the most effective way to dissuade the candidate from taking such an offer if it arises.

It is difficult to script this type of conversation because each circumstance is different but the chronology of the conversation would be as follows:

• Ask about what happens to staff at the candidate’s current employer when someone resigns? Depending on the company it could be that 'they are escorted from the premises immediately' (this often happens within a sales environment), through to 'they work their notice period'.
• Next, ask what happens to key employees when they resign? The answer may well be 'they work their notice' or 'the employer tries to persuade them to stay'.
• Even if the candidate does not talk about counter-offers, this is the time to discuss it and a statement similar to the following will work well to make the candidate realise that once he/she has resigned they should not take the counter-offer:

"I want this to be the right decision for both of us and it's important, if we both agree to move forward, for it to work out well. Of course, you can decide at any stage during the process that this is not the right job option for you but if we make an offer and you accept it then I would like us to both be clear that we are agreed that you are starting and there is no changing your mind. Is that okay?

"Another thing I want to cover, more for your benefit than anything else, is that as a key employee your existing employer may well make a counter-offer to you to stay as they will have been caught on the hop and will have problems if you leave, whether it's to work with me or somewhere else. To keep you, changes will probably be promised, a new role offered and maybe more money too. What I have seen time and time again in the past is that people who accept these counter-offers are looking again six months later, when the changes haven’t actually materialised. And, of course, by this time the opportunity they originally wanted will have gone - as will any trust from their existing employer because they tried to resign in the first place. You may have come across situations like this before? Anyway, I’m mentioning it now, more for your benefit so that you're aware of this kind of situation than any specific reason."

Dealing with the issue openly and pro-actively at this stage can save you a lot of trouble later.

The Candidate Accepting Your Offer But Continuing To Look For 'Better Opportunities':

With the best will in the world this will happen from time to time.

When you look back later and ask yourself what else you could have done, you will invariably remember having a gut feeling that everything didn’t feel quite right but you weren't able to put your finger on why. Your lesson will be to listen to this gut feeling and explore it further.

This is another reason not to make a job offer there and then at the end of an interview but to sleep on the decision overnight. When the niggle arises you can then replay events whilst they are fresh and you'll be able to pin down why they did not feel right.

It will usually be because the candidate was non-committal on a point or hesitated at the wrong time. Basically, it means they were not convinced about your opportunity. Unfortunately, if they accept the offer and continue looking at better opportunities there is little that you can do other than be slightly relieved because this is a reflection on the candidate’s integrity and may well have saved you from problems further down the road.

A caveat to the above statement is that sometimes the candidate will have multiple opportunities when accepting your offer and yours may not have been their first choice. Your questions at the end of the interview should have established this but that the candidate felt the favoured opportunity was dead because there had been no feedback. If the favoured opportunity subsequently comes back to the candidate then they will have a dilemma and they might well have a difficult decision.

The difference this time is how you find out about the other role being taken.

The candidate who was actively searching may not let you know that they are taking the other role or at best will send an email and will become difficult to contact. The candidate who has been presented with the tough dilemma will probably call you and talk you through the situation and why they are making the decision they are making. Neither particularly helps you but you would still be prepared to talk to the latter candidate in the future if a further opening arose and the timing was better.

The KEY Element To Ensuring That The New Employee Starts:

This is very easy: stay in touch! Don't receive the acceptance, send the contract out and ignore them until they start because they may not. Stay in touch throughout their resignation period, right up until they start.

Your aim should be to maintain their enthusiasm for joining you and you can do this by checking they have received the contract, regularly updating them on what is happening, telling them about day-to-day aspects of their new job such as where they will be sat, asking how they would like to be addressed on their business cards and what they will need to do their work (e.g. specific software or whatever), outlining what they will be doing when they start, and so on..

Next Time:

It is vital that the first few days with you are positive for a new employee as this is their first impression of you and your business and these impressions are difficult to change if they are not particularly good. Therefore, the induction is important and can be set up and run so that your new employees settle in and are very happy with their decision.