Get Your Offer Letters Sent and Signed Quickly
A watershed moment in the process of bringing on new members to your company’s team is when candidates resign from their jobs. Typically, that doesn’t happen until they have received and signed a formal offer letter. So, it’s crucial to tighten up the interval between extending the verbal offer and getting the offer letter signed.
You may view the signed offer letter as merely a formal requirement, but often to the candidate, it’s much more – especially if there’s a perceived delay in receiving it. Your candidates may begin to doubt their decisions. They may wonder what’s causing the delay:
- Has top management balked at my vacation requirement?
- Has something at the company changed?
- Has my need for an occasional telecommuting day hit a roadblock?
These are real and common concerns that candidates have.
For these reasons,
- Have an efficient system for compiling and sending offer letters.
- Be certain that they accurately reflect your verbal agreements.
- Get offer letters into the candidates’ hands as quickly as possible. If you can do it via email, great. If you need to send it by an overnight service, that works too.
- You should also check out E-Signature services. The offer letter can be sent and signed in seconds.
Let your candidates know they need to get the signed copy back to you as soon as possible. After all, they’ve been considering this decision for weeks. If they need “more time to think about it” something else is happening, and the two of you need to talk about it.
Finally, if you’d like to take a little verbal “step ahead” in the process, instead of framing your written correspondence as an “offer letter,” start out with something like, “This letter is to confirm your acceptance….”
It will underscore the verbal commitment that the candidate made, and may help prevent a counteroffer.