On-boarding & Retention 1

Candidate On-boarding
and Retention

Contents
Retaining candidate's engagement and commitment..........2
What are the risks of being short staffed.............................5
How to improve offer acceptance.........................................7
Paying a candidate their worth.............................................8
Post offer engagement.........................................................11
Final recap............................................................................13
1

Retaining candidates'
engagement and commitment:
Working with a range of clients from FTSE 100 PLC's to SME's, we’re seeing increasing trends of
companies failing to secure their preferred candidates once they’ve made an offer of employment. We
feel this is symptomatic of the fact the industry is candidate short, and many businesses are
competing for the same candidates. It’s also, in some cases, a reflection of how many businesses still
don’t recognise the value & importance of on-boarding candidates properly and how not doing this
effectively can lead potential employees into the hands of their competitors.
2

Once a candidate has gone through the
recruitment process there has already been a
significant cost incurred. Step back for a second
and think of all the time and expense that a
business incurs both in sourcing and
interviewing candidates. Consider the
advertising costs, recruitment department costs,
hiring manager’s time and expenses, senior
management’s time in approving new
appointments etc.
Businesses will often be very conscious of the
cost of using an agency, but surprisingly very
few businesses calculate their own costs of
sourcing candidates and taking them through
their recruitment process. Perhaps if more
businesses looked at the costs then there would
be a more consistent approach to ensure
candidate experience and on-boarding is of a
high standard.
It's important that you're aware of the time and
financial investment that's made during the
recruitment process. This way you can see the
impact of losing your preferred candidates
whether before or after the offer of
employment.
3

"For every week an offered
candidate goes without contact
from their new employer the
likelihood of them starting
reduces by 25%" *
*Data taken from our 2018 Salary & Employment Survey

What are the
risks of being
short-staffed?
1. Negative Impact on Customer
Service, Revenue & Profit
Customer Service levels can drop when a
business is operating without a full team in
place. This can lead to customers taking their
business elsewhere, directly impacting
revenue and profit. Poor service can also
result in missed opportunities to maximise
spend per head.
2. Reduced morale within the
existing team
3. Risk of over-promoting for a short
term fix
The existing team will often have to work extra
hours to cover the workload until a candidate
is found. This can negatively impact morale
within your existing team who might be more
likely to look for a new job or be open to
approaches from your competitors.
There's a risk that as time goes on, there will be
a temptation to over promote someone to fill a
vacancy. However, this is only a short term fix
and the focus should be on recruiting a more
qualified candidate externally to help drive the
team and business forward.
DETAIL2RECRUITMENT
5

"Between 30 and 35% of newly placed
candidates leave within the first 6 months.
Of these over 75% cite poor on-boarding
and lack of organisation around their
training as primary reasons for leaving,
and 40% of those who leave went back to
their previous employer" *
*Data taken from our 2018 Salary & Employment Survey

How to improve offer acceptance
Whilst there’s always going to be some situations that can’t
be foreseen, the counter offer is the single biggest reason
for candidates declining offers. Things you can do to
mitigate the risk of your preferred candidate accepting an
offer are:
1. Make the most competitive offer that you can.
2. Sell the benefits of your business to the candidate so
they understand the value of joining your team and how
this will help their career.
3. Deliver a great ‘post offer’ candidate experience which
will help validate the candidate’s decision to accept your
offer of employment.
7

Paying a candidate their worth
If the offer you make to the candidate is below their expectations, then consider the impact of that and
the likelihood that the candidate will reject your offer.
A lower offer can devalue the candidates perception of the hiring manager and the business, and any
engagement and buy-in that has been generated up until that point, can be put at risk. If you were in
their shoes and received an offer that was lower than what you expected / hoped for consider the
question marks this might create in your mind.
Things to consider:
• What’s the cost vs benefit of under-offering the candidate. In theory, under-offering a candidate
can save your business money, however, if a candidate rejects an offer further costs will incur as the
position is vacant for longer. It's also highly likely you will end up having to offer a higher salary to the
next candidate particularly as the vacancy becomes more business critical the longer it’s open.
• The candidate is highly likely to get a counter offer when they resign from their current role, so is
the financial incentive for them to move jobs enough to enable them to accept your offer? By underoffering
are you just making it easier for your competition to retain their employees?
8

• Risks of increasing the salary after the candidate has rejected your initial offer. In our
experience this approach is very hit and miss. The candidate might think ‘if you thought I was worth
that why didn’t you make that offer in the first place?’. If there’s any temptation to offer a lower
figure first and see what the candidates reaction is, this is a very risky approach as many candidates
won’t be comfortable trying to negotiate with you so may just reject your first offer, end
communication and move on.
• If your offer is lower than what they were expecting then explain your reasons to the
candidate.Talk to them about what you can do to support them to address any gaps in their
experience. They will want to know when they will next have an opportunity to have a salary review
and what will the business do to support them. The commitment of a salary review in the near
future (documented in their offer letter) can go some way to help put the candidate at ease and make
it clear they will have future opportunities to have their hard work and progress recognised. Help
them see the value you’re going to add to their career and how this will benefit them short, medium
and long term.
9

"Candidates who had a positive experience
of their on-boarding and training with a
new employer were around 60% more
likely to stay with that business" *
*Data taken from our 2018 Salary & Employment Survey

Post offer engagement
A candidate may decline your offer for reasons other than ‘money’. Many candidates place equal
importance on stability and relying on their gut feeling when it comes to assessing whether they’re
making the right / wrong decision in moving jobs. As soon as an offer has been made, there’s a few
simple but vital steps that can really help maintain the candidates commitment:
1. Communicate the offer, contract and training information in writing quickly after the offer
has been made. Many candidates want to see what they’re signing up to and it’s understandable
given that moving to a new company is a big step for many people and some candidates are more
prudent / risk averse than others. If there are any delays then this could not only delay their
resignation (and therefore their start date with you) but could also ‘spook’ the candidate and cause
them to question their decision.
2. Deliver a personal 'welcome on board' phone call. Ideally made by the employees new Hiring
Manager, a ‘welcome on board’ phone call to the candidate can have such a positive impact. The
candidate might be feeling unsure if they've made the right decision in accepting the position or their
current manager could be trying to persuade them to stay. A quick phone call welcoming them to the
team can make all the difference in reinforcing that they have made the right decision and get them
excited about starting their new role.
11

3. Meet the candidate for a coffee or some lunch after they’ve accepted the position. Again a
Post offer engagement
personal touch demonstrating to the candidate that they are already part of the team can be really
powerful and reduce any nerves they may be feeling about joining a new company. The time and cost
of doing this is far less than the cost of going back to the drawing board looking for a new candidate.
4. Consistency and reliability of communication. It can be damaging if the candidate is expecting a
call or an email with information at a certain time and then that communication doesn’t happen when
it’s been promised. It can create a level of doubt in the candidate's mind and rightly so. The impact of
not delivering on a promised communication can be far greater than the time it would have taken for
the relevant person to make the call / send the email that the candidate was expecting.
12

Final recap
Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. What
would a good and engaging recruitment and
on-boarding process look like to you? What
would make you feel welcome and wanted by a
new employer?
Don’t lose sight of the fact that moving jobs
is a ‘big deal’ for people. It often doesn’t just
affect the candidate but can also impact family,
dependants etc. and some candidates can get
nervous if things aren’t managed properly in
the build up to them joining your business.
Don’t give them any excuses to question their
decision.
Ensure that both your Recruitment team
and the Hiring Managers work together and
take a collective ownership for delivering best
practice on-boarding. If the different
departments aren’t in sync then the candidate
experience can often suffer.
13

Manage the candidate’s expectations. If they don’t
know what to expect in the period between offer and
start date then they could be unnecessarily worrying
about things. Let them know what to expect and then
deliver on the commitments you’ve given them.
Make the best offer you can. Whilst you have a
budget to manage if you trim the offer unnecessarily
and the candidate doesn’t accept it then more often
than not you’ll end up incurring more cost than you
would have if you’d made a better offer in the first
place.
If using an agency, work together to deliver a
great candidate experience. Both parties have a
vested interest in making sure the candidate stays
fully engaged. The Agency often has a longer
standing relationship with the candidate and this can
be a valuable support both to the candidate and
employer so don’t disconnect from the agency once
the offer has been made to the candidate.
Remember that good candidates aren’t secured
until they start in your business. If they’re working
a notice period they’re still susceptible to a counter
offer and approaches from other businesses. The
work isn’t done once an offer has been made and the
follow up needs managing properly.
14