The candidate’s experience and skillset are perfect. The client loves them and the interview is like the perfect meeting of minds.
The client extends a generous offer and you excitedly present it to the candidate.
And the candidate says… regretfully… no, thanks.
Now what?
How are you going to react to this last-minute rug pull?
Let’s begin with how NOT to react.
Pressure the Candidate
This one is quite easy to pull off. The candidate has a fair idea of how much time and energy has gone into the recruitment process, so it’s not too difficult to guilt them into reconsidering.
You can then use a bit of emotional blackmail by talking about how the decision will negatively affect their family and their career.
It doesn’t always work, but a well-seasoned recruiter certainly has the ability to turn a candidate around.
Just one problem…
If the candidate’s reasons for not taking the job offer are legitimate, those reasons aren’t going to magically disappear. And if the candidate’s first instincts were correct, they’re not going to stay in the role long-term.
That’s a problem for the client, it’s a problem for the candidate, and since you are the recruiter who helped put the deal together, it’s also a problem for you.
Yes, if the candidate is just getting cold feet or is inflating minor problems, it’s perfectly proper to help them gain some perspective. But if there is a genuine reason why the candidate believes they will be unhappy in the new role, pressuring the candidate is a short-term fix that will likely blow up in everyone’s faces.
Lie to the Client
This one is particularly tempting. No recruiter relishes the prospect of calling a client and telling them that their number one pick has rejected their offer. So, would it really hurt to the deflect the heat away from you onto somebody else.
You could pretend a competitor swooped in and gazumped the deal. You could make up a story about uncovering behavioural problems in the candidate’s job history. You could even find a way to blame the client for not showing enough commitment.
Aside from the unethical problems with this solution, lying is never a good way to maintain a good client relationship. The truth has an annoying tendency to come out and it only takes being caught in one lie to permanently ruin your reputation.
It takes courage to tell the truth, warts ‘n’ all, but it’s the only way to avoid compounding one problem with another.
Look for a Quick Fix
After a rejected offer, the pressure is on to find a suitable replacement. It could be that there’s an obvious second choice candidate in the shortlist. But if not, trying to quickly reposition another candidate to fill the gap can backfire.
It’s like a poker player who loses a big pot and spends the next few hands abandoning discipline and chasing a redemptive victory.
How well do you think that one works out?
Looking at the shortlist again is going to happen, but if you rush to find a second choice you, once again, run the risk of putting the wrong candidate into the role and giving the client a headache that takes months to resolve.
No matter how frustrating it is to have an unfilled vacancy, it’s nothing to the aggravation that comes from jamming a round peg into a square hold and having to spend months extracting it again.
Failure is a Learning Opportunity
Don’t roll your eyes. I know this is a cliché. But if you’re dealing with a candidate rejection you may as well find the gold seam in the situation.
Your client is frustrated and wants a quick solution. But as an expert recruiter, who knows only too well the problems and wasted money that occurs with a bad hire, it’s your job to convince the client not to rush to a second choice. This is the time to take a small step back and figure out what went wrong.
If you don’t, there’s a real possibility that this is going to happen again. And again.
Interview the Candidate
The candidate may have some reluctance to discuss their reasons in detail, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince them to participate. Unless they’re a total sociopath they’ll have some discomfort at backing out at a late stage and should be agreeable to helping you out if you frame it in this way.
It’s hard to overstate how important this step is. Even if the candidate explains their reasons to you and it seems clear where the problem lays, you should arrange an interview to discuss the candidate’s opinions of the entire recruitment process.
Sometimes a candidate will tell you what they think you want to hear or what they think will cause you the least exasperation. In other words, what they tell you is the problem, may just be a scapegoat for the real problem.
For this reason, it’s a good idea for the interview to be carried out by someone who wasn’t involved in the recruitment process. This will make it easier and more likely that the candidate will be forthright and give you valuable information.
Share With the Client
Once you’ve debriefed the candidate, you’re in a position to give the client useful information. Not guesswork, not scapegoating, and definitely not fabrications. But real, tangible feedback on why things went wrong.
Then, and only then, can you work with the client to make adjustments to reduce the chance of this happening the next time around.
If the problems are related to something outside of the client’s control, this is good news. It means a repeat of the problem is unlikely. But if the interview reveals that there was an intractable issue with the offer, the scope of the role or a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the interviewer, these are real problems that must be addressed.
Think for a moment about how valuable that information is. The candidate might have told you that they didn’t want to move to a new location. If you take that at face value you would be telling the client that the problem was out of their control.
But if an interview reveals that the client didn’t do enough to talk up the benefits of working for the firm, the future prospects for the role, and the financial assistance provided for moving location, then this is something the client can and absolutely should be addressing.
In extreme cases, a candidate rejection can be a blessing in disguise if it uncovers a weakness in the client’s recruitment strategy that has been plaguing them for years.
But that rejection ONLY turns into valuable information if, instead of panicking and focusing on how you’re going to find another candidate, you have the wherewithal to interview the candidate and dig into the details.
***
It’s worth noting that the above only really makes sense in the context of a consultative relationship between client and recruiter. If you’re working on a transactional basis and a candidate rejection also means that you’re not going to be paid for your work, it’s hard to justify spending extra time on helping the client figure out what went wrong.
This is yet another reason why long-term, consultative relationships with your clients are so important. The vast majority of the time, an employer is going to continue to have recruitment needs for many years and working with you long-term is going to allow opportunity to refine and improve the recruitment process.
If you want a recruitment career that goes beyond endless repeats of “one and done”, developing the consultative side of your recruitment business is critical.