From contracts and market research to discussing salaries and formalising an offer, find out all you need to secure top talent in London.
Create a competitive offer (completed prior to advertising)
- Standardise your contracts: ensure your contracts comply with UK labour laws.
- Conduct internal benchmarking: ensure the salary and compensation packages you’re offering compare to those of current employees in similar locations and positions within the company hierarchy.
- Carry out market research: source external salary and benefits data from your competitors.
- Leverage expertise: ask in-house recruiters and/or trusted partners (such as specialist agencies) to share any relevant data they have collected from discussions around salary and benefits for similar roles.
ABC – always be closing
- Proactively discuss salary: discussing the candidate’s salary expectations can begin as soon as they apply, but make sure to be transparent about your budget during those initial calls. It will be frustrating for them to get the job and then find a mismatch between what’s been discussed and what you can actually offer.
- Offer a full compensation package: don’t consider salary alone. A bonus, equity or strong pension scheme can all add considerable value to the offer. Likewise, offering benefits like flexible working will reduce their spend on travel and support the personal needs of candidates who are parents or carers.
- Align salary to experience: justify salary decisions based on the qualifications and experience of each candidate and be open to adjusting the offer based on those factors.
- Consider motivations: career decisions are not always strictly financial. Understand the candidate’s motivations for changing jobs and identify opportunities to upsell your offer based on how it improves on their current role.
- Expect counteroffers: counteroffers are commonplace, as no company likes to lose a talented employee. Often, it’s less expensive for the candidate’s current company to offer a salary increase than find a replacement, so be prepared to match or improve on their offer.
Communicate timelines and prioritise pace
- Act fast: confident you’ve found the right person? Move swiftly to show interest, create a great impression and avoid losing that candidate to competitors.
- Track and communicate timelines: wait no more than two and a half weeks between your first interview with the candidate and making them an offer, no more than 48 hours to make an offer after a final interview, and two to three days after they’ve accepted to complete the paperwork and set a start date. Communicate these timelines to the candidate as delays can cause dropout
- Close down the competition: Ask if your candidate is willing to withdraw from other interview processes once your offer is formalised. But before asking, make sure your offer compares favourably to those of your competitors.
Steps to formalise an offer
- Pre-close: be aware of other processes and the potential for a counteroffer, though some candidates may choose not to share. Clarify that your timeline meets their expected deadline for changing roles
- Budget and sign-off: communicate the need and business impact of making this hire internally, especially on revenue, cost savings or efficiencies. Anticipate objections and prepare supporting data, but be flexible in negotiations and consider alternative solutions if needed.
- Make a compelling verbal offer: clearly outline the role, compensation and benefits to the candidate, and align your offer to their motivations for leaving their current role.
- Formalise the offer: send paperwork promptly (within 24 hours) and communicate any delays. Make sure the HR and/or legal team has reviewed the contract.
- Give a deadline for their decision: it is common to include a deadline when making an offer, but ensure your timelines make allowances for potential delays such as weekend or holiday/travel.
- Ask for references: offers can be conditional upon receiving satisfactory references, which you can ask for as soon as the offer has been formalised.
- Negotiate effectively: anticipate potential disagreements and show flexibility to find mutually beneficial solutions. If increasing their salary is not possible, explore alternative options like flexible working or enhanced benefits.
- Address questions: be responsive and swift with candidate questions and concerns. Provide clear and honest answers to their enquiries.
Track and analyse
- Offer acceptance rate: monitor the percentage of offers accepted and rejected. Capture data such as rejection reasons to identify how you can improve your processes.
- Time to offer: track the timeline from initiating a first interview to making an offer.
- Candidate feedback: gather feedback from all candidates to identify areas for improvement.
