February, 1995

"Take This Job (Offer) and Shove It!"

Dear Fred:

Acme Widgets ("The People Company") has finally concluded you're about as good as we can get for the price and is pleased, all things considered, to offer you the job of Manager of Environmental Control at a monthly salary of $5,166.67, plus our standard benefits package (which HR will explain to you in due course).

The new pay, which represents a very realistic 3.3 percent increase over your current earnings, will be reviewed as soon as Corporate lifts the latest salary freeze. I know you expected a higher salary and a Director-level title, but we can't change the entire compensation system for one individual. Acme will, however, pay moving expenses up to $750, and your wife should find a few employment opportunities here in Duluth.

Acme is an at-will employer (despite any oral representations you may have heard to the contrary), and this offer is contingent on your ability to pass our battery of medical, psychological and drug exams. Let me know your response.

Sincerely yours,
R. J. Dixon

Candidates on the verge of accepting a job offer are a bundle of conflicting emotions.

On the one hand, there is great excitement and expectation stemming from the challenges and opportunities the new position offers. On the other hand, there is the anxiety of taking on new tasks in an unfamiliar organization, surrounded by subordinates and superiors whose loyalty and support are yet to be determined. In between, there may be a family to be uprooted, a house to be bought and a house to be sold. And are the salary and benefits an insult or an honor?

As experienced recruiters know, the composition of an offer is crucial to successful closing of the deal-no matter how well prior interviews went or how assiduously the candidate has been courted. But even more important can be the way in which an offer is extended.

Gunfight at the OK Corral

Rather than becoming the glue that binds company and candidate together, job offers often become tests of will, the ego and determination of the employer pitted against the ego and determination of the prospective new employee. It's shoot-out time at the OK Corral, and only one gunslinger will survive.

Many employers, guided by perfectly logical personnel policies, want to have com pensation and benefit plans that place them exactly on the bottom rung of the second quartile of all corporate plans nationwide - which is to say, just a tad above dead average. And within normal internal salary ranges, they would like to see most employees in the lower half, so that future increases can be kept within range. New hires, of course, should be offered packages that aren't out of kilter with the overall employee population.

Most candidates, however, view the new opportunity from a different perspective. They have been wooed, after all, to quit their job and join the hiring organization. The depth and sincerity of the prospective employer's love for them will, in their minds, be demonstrated by the magnitude of the new salary to be offered, not to mention add-ons to the standard benefits plan (perhaps an extra week of vacation), special perks (perhaps a corner office or company car), generous relocation package, promises of personal growth, opportunities for promotion, hiring bonus and an impressive job title for the candidate's alumni magazine. And what's this stuff about psychological testing?

When company and candidate collide, the clash of the titans may leave little room for compromise. Because each side gets dug in, offers may collapse over a few thousand dollars in annual salary or the unwillingness of the company to compensate for a stingy relocation policy with a modest hiring bonus.

And to make matters worse, disputes over salary or benefits may, in actuality, be a smokescreen for some other, unspoken concern the candidate has.

"No Surprises" Recruiting

Candidates are like onions: peel away a layer and you'll find another underneath. It is therefore incumbent on good recruiters to do their homework, know each candidate inside out and practice, in the terminology of the Sanford Rose Associates system, "no surprises" recruiting.

Over the years, SRA search consultants have learned that there are two keys to success ful offer negotiation:

First, the candidate must have a genuine reason for wanting to leave his or her current job that can be accommodated by the new position .

Second, "show stoppers" must be identified and resolved.

In a perfect free-enterprise world, greater opportunity and/or salary would induce anyone to change jobs. In reality, equally as many candidates change jobs to leave a problem behind. For one employee, this may be the perception of being underpaid, of always seeming to be behind the financial eight-ball. For another, it might be lingering resentment over a missed promotion. And for a third, it might be a boss who stifles new ideas.

A candidate might be reluctant to express any of the above problems to a potential new employer, for fear of sounding weak. The skilled search consultant, however, acting as a third-party confdante, can determine what emotions drive the candidate and, in the process, help the employer create the right inducements.

Likewise, there may be "show stoppers" that the candidate does not freely reveal. These may include such concerns as a spouse's ability to find reemployment in a new location, the introduction of an introverted child to a new school environment, rumors in recent years that the new employer is a takeover prospect, etc. Many candidates turn down jobs without ever telling the real reasons why. Once "show stoppers" are identified, however, there is the opportunity to address and resolve them-for example, offering to assist the spouse in a job search.

Firms like SRA also have access to sophisticated relocation data bases, able to graphically compare a candidate's community to another in terms of cost of living, taxes, housing, transportation, sports and cultural activities, etc. These can be used both to help the candidate "visualize" a new location and to help the company design an offer that will take into account any major differentials.

The Secret Good Recruiters Know

Except for the occasional candidate who gets last-minute cold feet (and/or a better offer), the outcome of your offer should never be in doubt. The secret to accomplishing this in 98 percent of all cases is to "close" a candidate step-by-step over a period of time. To continue the onion analogy, skilled search consultants will peel away each layer of resistance until none are left. If an obstacle exists that can't be removed, it's time to begin discussions with the next candidate in line.

Toward the end of the search process, the recruiter will have a very good understanding of the minimum terms a candidate will accept, along with the maximum you can offer. Unless these are poles apart, the recruiter can then achieve the very best result possible.

And by letting your search consultant extend and negotiate the offer, you can avoid unnecessary shoot-outs at the OK Corral.

If you work in a large, multi-unit organization, others – including the corporate Human Resources and MIS Departments – might appreciate copies of this issue. These can be ordered from your Sanford Rose Associates search consultant.

©1999 SRA International, Inc. All rights reserved, including electronic reproduction or alteration. This SRA Update is published for the clients of Sanford Rose Associates.