Most Talent Acquisitionist’s have encountered cases where they’ve had Candidates not joining the Organisation even after having given the Offer Letter. There have been several instances where Recruiters have realized that Applicants have merely used the Offer for better job opportunities. But the challenge still remains on how to combat this scenario.

Luckily, thanks to our members we @SourcingAdda  we’re able to find out solutions that can resolve this challenge by hosting the popular Wednesday WhatsApp discussions. The topic was on, “How to identify if a candidate is definitely going to join the organization or simply using our offer?” as suggested by our Mumbai group member Anshul. And here’s what we learned but before that remember to check the key take away pointers that will be highlighted thereafter. So here goes…

The informative discussion ends here, but don’t go just yet as we’ll be highlighting the key takeaways shortly. And reinforce the aspects discussed, “How to identify if a Candidate will definitely join the Organisation?” To boost retention of what we’ve learned so far; so join us and gain more clarity in the aspects understood. Here goes…

Indicators to identify whether a candidate will join the organization

• Inform Applicants about the exit plans in the current organization as it helps in understanding whether the candidate will join
• Ask them to share the resignation acceptance e-mail
• Notice the signs (the red flag) i.e. when the candidate tries to buy time by giving excuses like “boss is out of the country or will return in 2 weeks” etc.
• Conduct “Mock Calls” and trace Social Media activity
• Check their Naukri and Monster profiles; if they are constantly viewing their profile then it’s an indication that they are still on the lookout.
• Post offer released ask them to remove their profiles from the portal since most Candidates receive calls from such portals.
• If the candidate is serious and satisfied with the offer in hand then they’ll listen and remove their profiles from such portals.
• If a candidate applies for a job 2-3 months prior to the actual appraisals which for most companies are in December or March; they are more likely to offer – shopping for a counteroffer from the current employer.
• Secondly, pay close attention to the hesitation in their tone when answering a critical question i.e. “reason for change” as it’s a big clue that they are more likely to offer shopping.

Some Applied Approaches to Assist Affirmative On-Boarding

1. Periodic e-mails requesting candidate’s documents/form filling
2. Asking the candidate to share references apart from the ones in his current engagement
3. Coordinate a hiring manager meet / high-tea evangelize about the organisation, tech, culture…
4. Share small good-reads
5. Senior-level: send a company-branded diary/coffee mug to their home address which gives a family feel-good factor and support
6. Could share a few technical problem statements and solutions that the team performed (of course without client / confidential/classified material); get the candidate’s view / alternate approaches.
7. Client testimonials that are public, could be shared
8. Bi-weekly, have a 15 to 20 minutes call with the hiring managers as it will create a better experience

• Some candidates who work in top MNCs have the habit of going for an interview to get an offer and ask for a hike in such a scenario a company should ask them to leave or else the Offering Company should ask for the Resignation acceptance e-mail.

What to do to improve the offer to joining ratio?

• Keep them engaged by sending e-mails pertaining to the company and highlight where their contribution would lie e.g. a simple line like ‘you can contribute to our business in the XYZ space’ helps.
• Recruiters should not only engage them but keep the candidate’s interest by sharing company happenings and other information related to the job responsibilities as it’ll keep the candidate active and interested.
• Respond to calls and e-mails in an appropriate and professional manner
• Spend more time with the prospect after initial discussion at least over the phone
• The more you speak to the prospect, the better the rapport
• Once the trust is built; even if the candidate wasn’t sure to take the offer, you’d have at least had the satisfaction of having a shot at convincing them.
• Recruiters may be adaptive to gauge the feasibility of adding a personal touch / following standard methods / stick to protocols / some may follow fancy methods of engaging candidates for little treats such as lunch/dinner with a batch of expected joiners / taking them through the company details or briefing them of their KPI’s etc…
• Try to instill a sense of confidence to the candidates that we are there to help and guide them so most of the time they’ll open up.
• Beyond the offer, you also need to build healthy relationships by sharing your personal experience & views meaning personal and not professional engagement.
• The best practice that works is to close the offer @ lesser amount than budget and keep some margin in hand and conveys to the candidate that you’re trying your level best to get something extra for you.
• Choose an appropriate time to reveal the amount in order to maintain good personal relations and gain the trust of Candidates.
• Maintain a good relationship with the candidates and remember that there are few candidates that join because of a good rapport established with the HR
• “Post Offer Engagement and Curiosity” of the candidate is important to pay attention to

Things to bear in mind when dealing with such Candidates

• If a potential employee has approached the company with the end goal of obtaining a better offer from another company, such people should be identified upfront and the measures to engage them should be taken accordingly.
• Although everyone today follows these protocols, however, you will still have dropouts
• Try to connect with the prospect on a more personal level as this might have different results since we’re into Human Resources.
• It’s important to monitor whether your protocols really work and to understand up to what extent they work.
• Even though they don’t like the company give a decent hike which is as per industry standards
• If a selected Candidate is the best option nevertheless keep a backup ready
• Ensure that you consider the salary package making it a very important factor that shouldn’t be missed as your offer needs to meet their salary expectations if it’s realistic.
• We can push the candidate to share the resignation in their current organization immediately after making an offer.
• If they share the resignation acceptance e-mail the probability of joining will be higher
• After all its business and it’s all about building relationships besides Recruiters should also rely on their own intuition and stop sharing C.Vs. of Candidate dropouts.
• Most Candidates don’t always work for the money they work for treatment & a good work environment hence be sure to treat them well.
• There is no correct method for the question in a discussion because one may be motivated to join the company based on the rapport that you built.
• On the other hand, someone might join your company anyway irrespective of the rapport build which will differ from case to case basis.
• This is more of a challenge with JN to mid-level candidates whereas SN level candidates are comparatively open and clear.
• There are a number of activities we can perform however no method can assure you a 100% accuracy.
• Every method or combination can increase the probability of joining
• Note that there are candidates who block the company, in that case, you won’t be able to see their profile in Naukri or Monster but other company consultants can view their profile.

These are some of the keys take ways to bear in mind when dealing with Candidates on the whole. And paying careful attention to the cues you receive upon your interaction are indicators that will help you identify what’s the real reason the Applicant is coming for an Interview.

More importantly, learn to accept certain facts to move on and as far as possible be professional about it and avoid sharing candidate C.V. when they don’t join. Remember that if they don’t get back to you it’s because they’re keeping their options open which is perfectly alright.

If you’ve read this far then you’ve found something you like and you realize what you’re missing out on by not being part of these groups. If you’d like to join these groups then be sure to leave your views or requests to join these WhatsApp Groups in the comments section or send us a DM @SourcingAdda with your details (location & WhatsApp. No.) Be sure to follow us to get real-time updates to our upcoming activities and events.

Most Talent Acquisitionist’s have encountered cases where they’ve had Candidates not joining the Organisation even after having given the Offer Letter. There have been several instances where Recruiters have realised that Applicants have merely used the Offer for better job opportunities. But the challenge still remains on how to combat this scenario.

Luckily, thanks to our members we @SourcingAdda  we’re able to find out solutions that can resolve this challenge by hosting the popular Wednesday WhatsApp discussions. The topic was on, “How to identify if a candidate is definitely going to join the organisation or simply using our offer?” as suggested by our Mumbai group member Anshul. And here’s what we learnt but before that remember to check the key take a way pointers that will be highlighted thereafter. So here goes…

The informative discussion ends here, but don’t go just yet as we’ll be highlighting the key take a ways shortly. And reinforce the aspects discussed about, “How to identify if a Candidate will definitely join the Organisation?” To boost retention of what we’ve learnt so far; so join us and gain more clarity in the aspects understood. Here goes…

Indicators to identify whether a Candidate will join the organisation

• Inform Applicants about the exit plans in the current organisation as it helps in understanding whether the candidate will join
• Ask them to share the resignation acceptance e-mail
• Notice the signs (the red flag) i.e. when the candidate tries to buy time by giving excuses like “boss is out of the country or will return in 2 weeks” etc.
• Conduct “Mock Calls” and trace Social Media activity
• Check their Naukri and Monster profiles; if they are constantly viewing their profile then it’s an indication that they are still on the lookout.
• Post offer released ask them to remove their profiles from the portal since most Candidates receive calls from such portals.
• If the candidate is serious and satisfied with the offer in hand then they’ll listen and remove their profiles from such portals.
• If a Candidate applies for a job 2-3 months prior to the actual appraisals which for most companies are in December or March; they are more likely offer – shopping for a counter offer from the current employer.
• Secondly, pay close attention to the hesitation in their tone when answering a critical question i.e. “reason for change” as it’s a big clue that they are more likely offer shopping.

Some Applied Approaches to Assist Affirmative On-Boarding

1. Periodic e-mails requesting candidate’s documents / form filling
2. Asking the candidate to share references apart from the ones in his current engagement
3. Coordinate a hiring manager meet / high-tea evangelise about organisation, tech, culture…
4. Share small good-reads
5. Senior level: send a company branded diary / coffee mug to their home address which gives a family feel-good factor and support
6. Could share few technical problem statements and solutions that the team performed (of course without client / confidential / classified material); get the candidate’s view / alternate approaches.
7. Client testimonials that are public, could be shared
8. Bi-weekly, have a 15 to 20 minutes call with the hiring managers as it will create a better experience

• Some candidates who work in top MNCs have the habit of going for an interview to get an offer and ask for a hike in such a scenario a company should ask them to leave or else the Offering Company should ask for the Resignation acceptance e-mail.

What to do to improve the offer to joining ratio?

• Keep them engaged by sending e-mails pertaining to the company and highlight where their contribution would lie e.g. a simple line like ‘you can contribute to our business in the XYZ space’ helps.
• Recruiters should not only engage them but keep the candidate’s interest by sharing company happenings and other information related to the job responsibilities as it’ll keep the candidate active and interested.
• Respond to calls and e-mails in an appropriate and professional manner
• Spend more time with the prospect after initial discussion at least over the phone
• The more you speak to the prospect, the better the rapport
• Once the trust is built; even if the candidate wasn’t sure to take the offer, you’d have at least had the satisfaction of having a shot at convincing them.
• Recruiters may be adaptive to gauge the feasibility of adding a personal touch / following standard methods / stick to protocols / some may follow fancy methods of engaging candidates for little treats such as lunch / dinner with a batch of expected joiners / taking them through the company details or briefing them of their KPI’s etc…
• Try to in – still a sense of confidence to the candidates that we are there to help and guide them so most of the time they’ll open up.
• Beyond the offer you also need to build healthy relationships by sharing your personal experience & views meaning personal and not professional engagement.
• Best practice that works is close the offer @ lesser amount than budget and keep some margin in hand and conveys to the candidate that you’re trying your level best to get something extra for you.
• Choose an appropriate time to reveal the amount in order to maintain good personal relations and gain the trust of Candidates.
• Maintain a good relationship with the candidates and remember that there are few candidates that join because of a good rapport established with the HR
• “Post Offer Engagement and Curiosity” of the candidate is important to pay attention to

Things to bear in mind when dealing with such Candidates

• If a potential employee has approached the company with the end goal of obtaining a better offer from another company, such people should be identified up front and the measures to engage them should be taken accordingly.
• Although everyone today follows these protocols, however you will still have dropouts
• Try to connect with the prospect on a more personal level as this might have different results since we’re into the Human Resources.
• It’s important to monitor whether your protocols really work and to understand up to what extent they work.
• Even though they don’t like the company give a decent hike which is as per industry standards
• If a selected Candidate is the best option nevertheless keep a backup ready
• Ensure that you consider the salary package making it a very important factor that shouldn’t be missed as your offer needs to meet their salary expectation if it’s realistic.
• We can push the candidate to share the resignation in their current organisation immediately after making an offer.
• If they share the resignation acceptance e-mail the probability of joining will be higher
• After all its business and it’s all about building relationships besides Recruiters should also rely on their own intuition and stop sharing C.Vs. of Candidate drop outs.
• Most Candidates don’t always work for money they work for treatment & good work environment hence be sure to treat them well.
• There is no correct method for the question in discussion because one may be motivated to join the company based on the rapport that you built.
• On the other hand someone might join your company anyway irrespective of the rapport build which will differ from case to case basis.
• This is more of a challenge with JN to mid – level candidates whereas SN level candidates are comparatively open and clear.
• There are a number of activities we can perform however no method can assure you a 100% accuracy.
• Every method or combination can increase the probability of joining
• Note that there are candidates who block the company in that case you won’t be able to see their profile in Naukri or Monster but other company consultants can view their profile.

These are some of the key take a ways to bear in mind when dealing with Candidates on the whole. And paying careful attention to the cues you receive upon your interaction are indicators that will help you identify what’s the real reason the Applicant is coming for an Interview.

More importantly learn to accept certain facts to move on and as far as possible be professional about it and avoid sharing candidate C.V. when they don’t join. Remember that if they don’t get back to you it’s because they’re keeping their options open which is perfectly alright.

If you’ve read this far then you’ve found something you like and you realise what you’re missing out on by not being part of these groups. If you’d like to join these groups then be sure to leave your views or requests to join these WhatsApp Groups in the comments section or send us a DM @SourcingAdda with your details (location & WhatsApp. No.) Be sure to follow us to get real time updates to our upcoming activities and events.

There has been a long standing debate about responsibility & accountability within the corporate environment and we’re quite familiar with the blame game. There are several reasons as to why people engage in the blame game one of the many reasons being either insufficient information due to lack of clarity in ones duties and responsibilities.

In light of the scenario playing out in various corporate atmosphere we @SourcingAdda decided to have a discussion on, “Whose Responsibility is Offer Drop? On 2 parameters namely;

1. Is offer drop the responsibility of the Recruiter or Recruitment Team?
2. Is it the complete responsibility of all the stakeholders involved?”

As per our Bangalore Group Member Jiten’s suggestion where we’ll highlight the key take away pointers right after the discussion that went by so here goes…

The conversation above clearly shows that we’ve had quite a discussion and an enlightening one at that. We’ve certainly got different perspectives to both sides and we’re sure that if you’ve read this far you definitely found something interesting to add to your knowledge. We’re sure that you’ve received an overload of information and you’re looking for the key take a ways to assist you so here goes…

Where the responsibility lies

• A good deal of responsibility lies with the recruiter and the concerned department lead but sometimes despite our best of efforts some candidates back out.
• It is the responsibility of the people involved in the selection of the candidate
• Departments will always point fingers towards Talent Acquisition
• As far as responsibility goes it should be the Recruiter and Recruitment Team as they are engaging the applicants.
• Offer Reject – can be acceptable and Recruitment team is to take the blame
• It is the Recruiter’s and the Recruitment team’s responsibility to avoid offer drops

Identify the reasons for Candidate Back-outs

Identify the factors affecting their decision to join like –

a)      Compensation,

b)      Relocation,

c)       Personal Reasons,

d)      Facilities,

e)      Security aspect or Transportation

• Find out the reasons for candidates dropping out to bring down the ratio
• Introspect to find factors that are prevalent in the organisation that may affect their decision to join
• The RCA can indicate that the impression you had was wrong
• Offer Dropout is a produce of Lack of Candidate Engagement which includes the selection process, pre and post offer expectations setting and post offer interaction.
• Accepting or dropping the offer purely depends on the attitude of the candidate
• People fail to understand that a consultant is just as good as an employer since they don’t look for the candidates only for the closure and to earn money.
• Sometimes there might be a miscommunication from the Recruiter’s side or the Candidate’s attitude
• Employing or getting jobs to people is a service that Recruiter’s provide
• If the Candidate recruited sticks to the firm for more than at least 3 years it’s an achievement
• The issue is just one side of an entire industry
• When retaining a candidate or approaching one serving their notice period with another opportunity which is financially or role wise a better one than what they are already holding they will consider the new opportunity.
• In such a scenario it leads them to dropping out of the offer already accepted
• Communication is a major aspect as sometimes a Candidate gives a different picture but portrays something else at the interview, which we aren’t aware of.
• Sometimes when the Candidate knows about the CTC offered for a particular position, they obviously start close to that even if they are drawing almost 50% less than what is allocated.
• Even after setting and understanding the expectations, the time period sometimes is so long, that the expectations and situation of the Candidate changes or is lured with something better than what they currently have.
• The luring at times convinces the Candidate that what they have in hand is not as per their aspirations.

Develop the skill sets and techniques required

• Most Recruiters lack the negotiation skills which is the root cause of offer drop out
• You cannot categorise all the skills in the same bucket
• Each skill has to be handled differently
• Understand the desperation and motive for a job change in the first screening itself
• Be ready with a pipeline to fall back on
• The fear of losing the candidate prompts a Recruiter to extend the offer without negotiating hard
• Without having multiple bargaining rounds in HR can also affect candidate retention
• Symptoms of active candidate will be:

a)      They will proactively call or e – mail Recruiters

b)      Say the exact reason for change

c)       Candidates who are jobless and looking for relocation will be sure shot

• To be on safer side it’s advisable to have 2 candidates in pipeline; one you can offer while you keep the other as a backup.
• The backup Candidate is one who doesn’t fit the role due to a Lakh or two Lakhs
• Then if the first Candidate backs out normally the business agrees to increase the budget to avoid wastage of time.
• Mostly a Monetary Bond; in India it is easily breakable
• If you do not release Candidates on a bond basis they or you can face legal challenges
• ‘One Position, One Offer Model’ is gone you need to have a Plan B in place
• Set the expectations in advance to avoid later issues

Learn to accept certain truths

• Companies try to bring down the offer to drop out ratio but it is the most difficult task
• 90% of the decision made by candidates while accepting an offer more often than not compensation is the main factor.
• There are two factors for a candidate

a)      Push

b)      Pull

• Just having 65% offer to joining ratio isn’t an indication that there is a pull factor
• You will have instances where people have used offers to negotiate deals elsewhere
• Different reasons lead a candidate to say no to the offer
• Most don’t even inform that they are not joining due to loss of an opportunity
• Candidates get hints of onsite opportunities from current employers or hear word of immediate ones from another company.
• Offer rejected can be controlled but if it is an offer renege then it’s alarming
• You will have a lot of candidates backing out at the last minute due to personal reasons
• You will encounter candidates that never pick up the call again
• Ultimately you cannot force a candidate to join
• All you can do is make the person feel valued if it will ensure that they at least inform you in case they decide not to join.
• In spite of your efforts to make a Candidate feel valued it will have its limitations one being not meeting the CTC expectations
• You will have Candidates absconding even after they join
• Know that the interested Candidate will return your missed call for sure
• Realise that’s it’s the Candidates market so in spite of your efforts it’s their career and life’s decision and you cannot put a price on that besides they are in charge.
• Irrespective of your efforts in convincing Candidates it rolls down to their mind set at the end of the day.
• When engagement is right there would be a bond and when there’s a bond there’s nothing called informing.
• Every bond usually has a clause and you can make it work out for fresher to some extent
• If you reach out to Candidates serving their notice period, you have to accept and face the fact that someone else may reach out to ours.
• Realise that most Candidate will not tell you exactly what they are looking for or the reasons for them it’s up to you to pick up the hints and clues based on observation and expressed behaviour.
• From the HR perspective we can set up rules but from the on business front people will not agree since candidate will become bill able resource and delivery will be most important thus everyone will break the rules for survival as businesses are billable.
• Businesses need to accept risks as well hence accepting the risk of a Candidate dropping out at last minute is unavoidable.
• It will always be a give and take relationship
• Unless we stop pursuing already offered candidates then we will have drop outs.
• Candidates know that they become valuable while serving notices and they exploit that importance which is probably human nature.

Solutions to Candidate Backouts

• Have a system of assigning buddies, engaging the candidate if the joining period is long
• Use technology to monitor the selection process to find out the status of the Candidate selection
• Use the RCA as it will let you know:

a)      Whether the Organisation sold the job,

b)      If a competitive remuneration was offered,

c)       If proper handholding was done,

d)      Whether the standard Operating procedure while sourcing for the final selection was followed

• Send candidates who don’t respond for more than 2 weeks after the offer rolled out a withdrawal of offer email with a cc to the business partner and the consultant; and the candidate will respond to the email for fear of being blacklisted.
• Anticipating their next move from the 1^st interaction with them
• Be ready with a counter offer in case the offer dropout is based on the mechanism of the organization
• Decide the level of engagement with Candidates based on the profile offered
• The more you engage with the candidate the more you know
• A candidate is less likely to drop out if the Recruiter guides them on how the opportunity would help them to advance in their career which goes a long way in building trust.
• Counter offers are usually compensation based but post offer interaction is the key
• Offer on – site opportunity to the candidate’s current employer to retain them
• Several miniature activities together are called engagement
• As a Recruiter; the face of the company, you deal with human beings and not commodities
• Understand and act accordingly with candidates instead of pushing them around in the name of chasing targets.
• Just a call or two from the business to the new candidate before joining makes the candidate feel like they are valued and the organisation is looking forward to them join and works for senior level hiring.
• Getting the hiring Managers in the picture makes a difference
• Roping in the hiring Manager to conduct connect calls as a part of the post offer management process makes a difference.
• It has beautifully worked for mid and leadership level hiring
• Be it a consultant or the HR at a Corporate ensuring that a potential resource be shortlisted  or hired for the position
• There needs to be a continuous communication from both ends
• There would be different factors which influence a Candidate to accept or reject the offer
• Right kind of engagement is one influencing factor where involving business is essential
• Involving their ex co-workers, referrers engaging their personal factors in our discussions especially the emotion buttons are the key.
• Presenting it as a win – win situation for them
• A personal discussion with the Candidate gives us space to engage with them strongly
• As an industry, we need to set some rules and guidelines regarding whom to approach and whom not to
• You may not be successful in changing the mind set of Candidates but as one industry you can surely set few rules to be followed by every organization which is similar to the no poaching policy.
• Try Sourcing Candidates with no offer as this will reduce offer drops altogether

Well this brings our enlightening discussion to an end where we can say for certain that it was quite a discussion with a lot of key take away pointers to add to your knowledge and think about. So if you aren’t a part of these live discussions for instance Bell Curve Performance Management System a boon or bane? Then you now know what you are missing out on.

Therefore, be sure to follow us @SourcingAdda  for real time updates to our upcoming events and activities. In the meantime make sure you leave your views or requests to join our WhatsApp Groups in the comments section or DM (Twitter) us @SourcingAdda with your contact no. & location and our representative will get back to you.

There has been a long standing debate about responsibility & accountability within the corporate environment and we’re quite familiar with the blame game. There are several reasons as to why people engage in the blame game one of the many reasons being either insufficient information due to lack of clarity in ones duties and responsibilities.

In light of the scenario playing out in various corporate atmosphere we @SourcingAdda decided to have a discussion on, “Whose Responsibility is Offer Drop? On 2 parameters namely;

1. Is offer drop the responsibility of the Recruiter or Recruitment Team?
2. Is it the complete responsibility of all the stakeholders involved?”

As per our Bangalore Group Member Jiten’s suggestion where we’ll highlight the key take away pointers right after the discussion that went by so here goes…

The conversation above clearly shows that we’ve had quite a discussion and an enlightening one at that. We’ve certainly got different perspectives to both sides and we’re sure that if you’ve read this far you definitely found something interesting to add to your knowledge. We’re sure that you’ve received an overload of information and you’re looking for the key take a ways to assist you so here goes…

Where the responsibility lies

• A good deal of responsibility lies with the recruiter and the concerned department lead but sometimes despite our best of efforts some candidates back out.
• It is the responsibility of the people involved in the selection of the candidate
• Departments will always point fingers towards Talent Acquisition
• As far as responsibility goes it should be the Recruiter and Recruitment Team as they are engaging the applicants.
• Offer Reject – can be acceptable and Recruitment team is to take the blame
• It is the Recruiter’s and the Recruitment team’s responsibility to avoid offer drops

Identify the reasons for Candidate Back-outs

Identify the factors affecting their decision to join like –

a)      Compensation,

b)      Relocation,

c)       Personal Reasons,

d)      Facilities,

e)      Security aspect or Transportation

• Find out the reasons for candidates dropping out to bring down the ratio
• Introspect to find factors that are prevalent in the organization that may affect their decision to join
• The RCA can indicate that the impression you had was wrong
• Offer Dropout is a produce of Lack of Candidate Engagement which includes the selection process, pre and post-offer expectations setting and post-offer interaction.
• Accepting or dropping the offer purely depends on the attitude of the candidate
• People fail to understand that a consultant is just as good as an employer since they don’t look for the candidates only for the closure and to earn money.
• Sometimes there might be a miscommunication from the Recruiter’s side or the Candidate’s attitude
• Employing or getting jobs to people is a service that Recruiter provides
• If the Candidate recruited sticks to the firm for more than at least 3 years it’s an achievement
• The issue is just one side of an entire industry
• When retaining a candidate or approaching one serving their notice period with another opportunity which is financially or role wise a better one than what they are already holding they will consider the new opportunity.
• In such a scenario it leads them to drop out of the offer already accepted
• Communication is a major aspect as sometimes a Candidate gives a different picture but portrays something else at the interview, which we aren’t aware of.
• Sometimes when the Candidate knows about the CTC offered for a particular position, they obviously start close to that even if they are drawing almost 50% less than what is allocated.
• Even after setting and understanding the expectations, the time period sometimes is so long, that the expectations and situation of the Candidate changes or are lured with something better than what they currently have.
• The luring at times convinces the Candidate that what they have in hand is not as per their aspirations.

Develop the skill sets and techniques required

• Most Recruiters lack the negotiation skills which is the root cause of offer drop out
• You cannot categorize all the skills in the same bucket
• Each skill has to be handled differently
• Understand the desperation and motive for a job change in the first screening itself
• Be ready with a pipeline to fall back on
• The fear of losing the candidate prompts a Recruiter to extend the offer without negotiating hard
• Without having multiple bargaining rounds in HR can also affect candidate retention
• Symptoms of an active candidate will be:

a)      They will proactively call or email Recruiters

b)      Say the exact reason for the change

c)       Candidates who are jobless and looking for relocation will be a sure shot

• To be on the safer side it’s advisable to have 2 candidates in the pipeline; one you can offer while you keep the other as a backup.
• The backup Candidate is one who doesn’t fit the role due to a Lakh or two Lakhs
• Then if the first Candidate backs out normally the business agrees to increase the budget to avoid wastage of time.
• Mostly a Monetary Bond; in India, it is easily breakable
• If you do not release Candidates on a bond basis they or you can face legal challenges
• ‘One Position, One Offer Model’ is gone you need to have a Plan B in place
• Set the expectations in advance to avoid later issues

Learn to accept certain truths

• Companies try to bring down the offer to drop out ratio but it is the most difficult task
• 90% of the decision made by candidates while accepting an offer more often than not compensation is the main factor.
• There are two factors for a candidate

a)      Push

b)      Pull

• Just having 65% offer to joining ratio isn’t an indication that there is a pull factor
• You will have instances where people have used offers to negotiate deals elsewhere
• Different reasons lead a candidate to say no to the offer
• Most don’t even inform that they are not joining due to loss of an opportunity
• Candidates get hints of onsite opportunities from current employers or hear a word of immediate ones from another company.
• Offer rejected can be controlled but if it is an offer renege then it’s alarming
• You will have a lot of candidates backing out at the last minute due to personal reasons
• You will encounter candidates that never pick up the call again
• Ultimately you cannot force a candidate to join
• All you can do is make the person feel valued if it will ensure that they at least inform you in case they decide not to join.
• In spite of your efforts to make a Candidate feel valued it will have its limitations one being not meeting the CTC expectations
• You will have Candidates absconding even after they join
• Know that the interested Candidate will return your missed call for sure
• Realize that’s it’s the Candidates market so in spite of your efforts it’s their career and life’s decision and you cannot put a price on that besides they are in charge.
• Irrespective of your efforts in convincing Candidates it rolls down to their mindset at the end of the day.
• When engagement is right there would be a bond and when there’s a bond there’s nothing called informing.
• Every bond usually has a clause and you can make it work out for fresher to some extent
• If you reach out to Candidates serving their notice period, you have to accept and face the fact that someone else may reach out to ours.
• Realize that most Candidates will not tell you exactly what they are looking for or the reasons for them it’s up to you to pick up the hints and clues based on observation and expressed behavior.
• From the HR perspective we can set up rules but from the on business front people will not agree since the candidate will become billable resource and delivery will be most important thus everyone will break the rules for survival as businesses are billable.
• Businesses need to accept risks as well hence accepting the risk of a Candidate dropping out at the last minute is unavoidable.
• It will always be a give and take a relationship
• Unless we stop pursuing already offered candidates then we will have dropouts.
• Candidates know that they become valuable while serving notices and they exploit that importance which is probably human nature.

Solutions to Candidate Backouts

• Have a system of assigning buddies, engaging the candidate if the joining period is long
• Use technology to monitor the selection process to find out the status of the Candidate selection
• Use the RCA as it will let you know:

a)      Whether the Organisation sold the job,

b)      If a competitive remuneration was offered,

c)       If proper handholding was done,

d)      Whether the standard Operating procedure while sourcing for the final selection was followed

• Send candidates who don’t respond for more than 2 weeks after the offer rolled out withdrawal of offer email with a cc to the business partner and the consultant, and the candidate will respond to the email for fear of being blacklisted.
• Anticipating their next move from the 1^st interaction with them
• Be ready with a counteroffer in case the offer dropout is based on the mechanism of the organization
• Decide the level of engagement with Candidates based on the profile offered
• The more you engage with the candidate the more you know
• A candidate is less likely to drop out if the Recruiter guides them on how the opportunity would help them to advance in their career which goes a long way in building trust.
• Counteroffers are usually compensation based but post-offer interaction is the key
• Offer an on-site opportunity to the candidate’s current employer to retain them
• Several miniature activities together are called engagement
• As a Recruiter; the face of the company, you deal with human beings and not commodities
• Understand and act accordingly with candidates instead of pushing them around in the name of chasing targets.
• Just a call or two from the business to the new candidate before joining makes the candidate feel like they are valued and the organization is looking forward to them join and works for senior-level hiring.
• Getting the hiring Managers in the picture makes a difference
• Roping in the hiring Manager to conduct connect calls as a part of the post-offer management process makes a difference.
• It has beautifully worked for mid and leadership level hiring
• Be it a consultant or the HR at a Corporate ensuring that a potential resource be shortlisted  or hired for the position
• There needs to be a continuous communication from both ends
• There would be different factors which influence a Candidate to accept or reject the offer
• Right kind of engagement is one influencing factor where involving business is essential
• Involving their ex co-workers, referrers engaging their personal factors in our discussions especially the emotion buttons are the key.
• Presenting it as a win-win situation for them
• A personal discussion with the Candidate gives us space to engage with them strongly
• As an industry, we need to set some rules and guidelines regarding whom to approach and whom not to
• You may not be successful in changing the mindset of Candidates but as one industry you can surely set a few rules to be followed by every organization which is similar to the no-poaching policy.
• Try Sourcing Candidates with no offer as this will reduce offer drops altogether

Well, this brings our enlightening discussion to an end where we can say for certain that it was quite a discussion with a lot of keys take away pointers to add to your knowledge and think about. So if you aren’t a part of these live discussions, for instance, Bell Curve Performance Management System a boon or bane? Then you now know what you are missing out on.

Therefore, be sure to follow us @SourcingAdda  for real-time updates to our upcoming events and activities. In the meantime make sure you leave your views or requests to join our WhatsApp Groups in the comments section or DM (Twitter) us @SourcingAdda with your contact no. & location and our representative will get back to you.

There’s been a lot of talk about Sourcing which requires one to explore untapped avenues to scout the needle in the haystack Talent that isn’t being Sourced.  We’ve spoken about different trends in Sourcing Talent for instance Executive and Non – Executive Search Sourcing Techniques and methods on a general level. But have you focused more on the ways and means for Sourcing specific Talents?

Having said that, we @SourcingAdda decided to conduct a discussion to find out other methods of Sourcing for the Talent you seek thanks to the suggestion of our Bangalore group member Anvesh. Hence, the topic for discussion Wednesday’s was on, “Ways to Scout Ph.D. Talent Holding Multiple Patents”  we’ll be disclosing the discussion on the WhatsApp groups shortly and right after that, we’ll be highlighting the key take away pointers to improve learning so let’s begin…

The discussion above was quite interesting as we received some out of the box tools to compliment while speeding up your specific Ph.D. and Patent Talent Search. And here are the key take away pointers to add to your learning…

Sourcing Tools & Methods to Source Ph.D. Talent Holding Multiple Patents

Sourcing Tools

1. Scholar Search
2. Google Patents Search
3. Google search or an Image Search

Sourcing Channels

1. PhD Talent – https://www.phdtalent.org
2. Espacenet – https://www.epo.org/searching-for-patents.html
3. inPASS – http://ipindiaservices.gov.in/publicsearch  (for Indian Specific Patent Search)
4. WIPO – https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/search.jsf  (for Worldwide Patent Search)

Sourcing Instructions

• You need to use the method of finding those with patents through these websites
• Use your Sourcing channels (GitHub, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Collect note information where you can reach out to the Applicants
• You can also get results if the Talent Sourced has blogged
• Look for other places where Candidates have mentioned their contact information
• When a “Google Search” is done or an “Image Search” is done on Google; it returns a lot of research and Ph.D. Talent

Well, this brings us to the end of yet another insightful WhatsApp discussion like the other one we had about, “Is Counselling Candidates on improving their Job Hunt Strategy a Recruiters Role?” If you read this far then we’re sure that you’ve something interesting and worthwhile. And if you’re not yet a part of these enlightening conversations then you know from the discussion above what you’re missing out on.

Therefore don’t be a passive learner become an active one by joining our Sourcing ADDA WhatsApp Groups and following us @SourcingAdda for real-time updates to our upcoming activities and events. If you’re wondering how to join these groups then that’s easy, simply

1. Send us a DM via Twitter with your details i.e. WhatsApp contact no., location and Job Title to  @SourcingAdda                                                                                                                                                                                               OR                                                                                
2. Leave your requests to join along with your views in the comments and our representative will get back to you

There you have it; now wasn’t that easy that too in just 1 step beside you’re already a part of the Sourcing ADDA family if you’re reading this. Then why not make it official and add to your learning in a fun and exciting way while interacting with like-minded individuals like yourself.