Call first, email second. There is no other way to do it safely. This BusinessWeek.com article – Hiring Companies Should Show the Love – got me thinking about this topic. The article is written to the candidate’s perspective, but it holds good advice for hiring companies too.

For starters, if a company calls you with a job offer, they should have all the details ready to explain to you, including title, reporting relationship, compensation (salary, bonus, 401(k), etc.) and amount of travel. Now, much of this may have gotten sorted out during the interview process. But because the processes are often so fragmented, you may only have one shot with the hiring manager and the HR person.

Even this author assumes the company will call with an offer. But…we had a customer who simply emailed an offer without calling the candidate. They liked the candidate and he was most interested in the job. However, he was taken aback when the offer simply arrived in his inbox. He hadn’t even been told he was the top candidate! Not surprisingly, he passed on the opportunity.

The author is correct in that the call should be made to the candidate once the offer is completed and ready to be emailed out to the candidate. The hiring manager or HR person should be able to speak generally about the offer. This approach also helps to prep the candidate for what they are going to see when they open the offer.

Later in the article:

You should be given plenty of time (at least four business days) to consider the job offer before it expires.

That seems a bit long in our world, but we specialize in sales recruiting which slants our view. Strong sales candidates qualify the compensation plan (especially the commission) before getting to the offer stage. The presentation of the offer should be nothing more than confirming the discussions that have already occurred.

If compensation is a “surprise” at the offer stage, go find a new sales candidate.

Posted By Derrick Moe | Hiring,Hiring Salespeople | | Comments(2)