Onboarding: How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed in Half the Time

CHAPTER 6

Make the Right Offer, and Close the Right Sale the Right Way

Recruit

Treat the offer as just one part of a strategic sale. The way you handle offers and support your new employees’ due diligence efforts will impact the way they feel about you and your organization—with implications far beyond the yes or no. You want offerees to say “yes,” if the move is right for them, their supporters, and the organization. You want them to say “no,” if it’s not.

This part is supposed to be easy. You mapped out the role and got stakeholders aligned around it. You found the most appropriate candidates. You and your colleagues conducted the interviews and background checks while pre-selling. The lead candidate proved his or her strengths, motivation, and fit with the organization. Now, it’s entirely reasonable to expect the lead candidate to accept the job the moment you make the offer.

It could happen.

Don’t count on it.

Actually, you don’t really want it to happen.

We Want You—But We’re Not Going to Tell You

The interviews were tough. That didn’t bother Brenda at all. She expected interviews at a top-flight company like Tip-Top Products to be tough. They told her they’d get back to her in two weeks.

After three weeks, she called to get a status update. “We’re sending you a letter today.”

After another week, she called again. “We’re so sorry. The letter got mangled in the copy room ...