The Art of the Job Offer

Many employers have their hiring systems worked out fairly well, carefully screening every applicant and narrowing their search to the best few candidates. But when it comes time to actually make the job offer, sometimes some of the simple things get overlooked and even good employers let their preferred candidate steal some of the leverage in the hiring negotiation process. The Hire Sense has a great list of items that should be included in any offer letter:

• Position and job description - For sales I would recommend that you lay out your expectations and include milestones for the first 90-180 days and their first year’s sales quota.
• Location and working hours
• Base salary - You must include your commission schedule also. I would even recommend that you include a spreadsheet of the expected commission according to their quota. One other critical item - you must define when the commission is earned (at billing, at shipping, at payment received).
• Benefits - include a copy of you benefits statement. This topic has become a very important area for any new hire due to the escalating costs of healthcare. Be as specific as possible - who is the provider, when are they eligible for the benefit, how much it will cost, etc.
• Start date
• Information, documents that are needed on the first day of work
• Contingencies (reference check, start date) - If you tender the offer prior to references and a background check, make sure that the offer is contingent upon satisfactory completion of these steps.
• Last, include a date by which the applicant must respond to your job offer so you can move on to the next candidate if he or she doesn’t accept. As the Hammer always says, ”It never takes them longer to say YES.” Often if they can’t give you an answer within 48 hours, they are using your offer to get a better deal with their present employer or leveraging your offer against another offer.

Whether you are an employer or a candidate for an open position, the job offer stage is perhaps the most important aspect of the hiring process. At this point, both parties are invested in the hiring process and each must know their position in order to negotiate effectively and create the best possible scenario moving forward.

Tags: employee screening, hiring processes, job offers, recruiting, salary negotiations

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