What do we do with two viable candidates? When we’ve found two candidates that we’d be willing to hire, both of whom are “above the bar,” how do we handle the candidates?
As hiring managers we have to be the one who communicates with candidates at this point. Too many managers outsource part of their communications with offerees/candidates. We communicate with the top candidate, and then we don’t communicate with HR regularly about the status of the second candidate, allowing there to be a gap in our knowledge of the situation.
The process of offering and closing ought not be outsourced. The efficiency value of allowing others to communicate is far outweighed by the loss of effectiveness when we’re not the ones doing the communicating. HR will never understand your needs, or your timing, as fully as you do. And they will always add more time to the process. Increased time with decreased value makes little sense.
Don’t allow someone else to have a conversation and then either (a) not tell you about it or (b) characterize it for you. This characterization will lack some of the subtlety that you will be able to hear because no one else understands your situation or the candidate as completely as you do.
We talk to all candidates. If we reject someone, we tell him so. If a candidate is still pending, we tell her so. If a candidate has questions, we’re happy to take those calls. What if HR flubs an answer and you lose someone over it?
We’ve finished the interviewing process, and we’ve gathered input from the Interview Results Capture Meeting. Out of that, we learned there are two candidates who meet our overall standards. This means we could see ourselves hiring either one of them.
What now? Before we communicate rejection to those candidates who didn’t make it, we have to quickly call those candidates who are still viable.
We must communicate that the decision is still being made, and that they are still very much in the running. Some candidates have been ruled out, but they are still being considered due to their strong performance, and decisions like this one take time.
Here’s how it might sound.
Roberto, we were very impressed during your interviews. I’m calling to let you know that you were highly recommended, and we are trying to come to a decision. Some candidates have been ruled out, but you are still in the running. Sometimes it takes several days to get all the details worked out, but I will be in contact in the next few days to keep you posted. Congratulations on your performance.
Note that this statement is made to both of the remaining viable candidates. This isn’t the statement we make to our “top” candidate, because we haven’t decided who our top candidate is yet. Right now, we’re just being open and providing more feedback than most organizations do.
Here’s another example:
Claire, I’m calling with good news so far. You did very well in your interviews, and you are still in the running. We’ve eliminated some candidates, and we’re still very interested in you. Sometimes these decisions take a few days, and I didn’t want to leave you hanging. I will be in touch as I know more.
Also note the beauty here of not having made a decision in terms of whom to offer. By communicating quickly and not about your decision, you avoid being in the awkward position of being asked if someone is your first choice, which you would rather not share.
Please do not think that the solution is to communicate quickly to your top candidate, in hopes of a quick decision, while saying nothing to others still in the running because you don’t know what to say. Too many managers do what has been done to them, and communicate too little. It’s one of the reasons all of us hate this process—it’s being done wrong, for the wrong reasons.
Once we’ve made our decision, we offer the candidate we have ranked as best. When we have multiple candidates, we must move quickly. In this situation, taking longer than 72 hours to make a decision between two candidates is too long.
Frankly, unless you intend to ask for more information—you have all the information you’re going to have. We recommend sitting down and deciding. We think if you want to, you can do it in one evening. No two candidates are that equally matched, and your delay is likely, in our experience, to be indicative of a lack of interest in offering, not in deciding which of the two to offer.
Remember that every offer includes a deadline.
In this situation, we recommend that the deadline you set is by 5 p.m., 4 days from the start of the day you are making the offer on, or by 8 a.m. Monday if that deadline falls on the weekend.
If you offer on Monday, even if it’s Monday at 4 p.m., the deadline is Thursday at 5 p.m. If you offer on Tuesday, the deadline’s Friday at 5 p.m. If you offer on Wednesday or Thursday, the deadline’s Monday at 8 a.m., and if you offer on Friday, the deadline’s Monday at 5 p.m.
We’ve found these deadlines are not ill-perceived by the candidate waiting in the wings. For once, historical slowness, the lack of crisp processes, the lack of clear communication that every other hiring company goes through actually helps us. Our viable candidate whom we haven’t offered is going to consider this delay reasonable, and will not assume that he is being “passed over for someone better.”
Just as we communicate with the candidate we offered every 72 hours, so with our second candidate. After 72 hours too many candidates’ active and negative imaginations get the best of them. It’s so easy to remain in the front of candidates’ minds by simply touching base.
It might sound like this:
Cedric, I just want you to know we’re still working on things. We feel we’ll have an answer for you shortly. I suspect it will be by [insert one day past the deadline of the candidate who has been offered here]. I’m sorry for the delay.
We’re not big fans of deadline extensions. It’s completely reasonable to say “no” to such a request. And if you feel the request is based on a fair reason, grant the request but limit the extension to one day, two in unusual circumstances.
But remember: The primary reasons candidates give for delaying decisions is uncertainty about fit . . . and waiting for another offer to come in. Don’t assume yours is the only offer someone is considering.
If your first choice accepts, be thrilled. And quickly call your second candidate and decline them, as discussed in Chapter 23. The fact that we have held this person off in hopes of offering him or her means once we know we can’t offer, we have an obligation to close the loop quickly.
If your first candidate declines or can’t accept by the deadline, it’s time to offer the second candidate. No mention is made of the first candidate and that offer, in the same way that this offer and other offers are private matters.
In addition to following the normal offer process we recommend, we might begin with, “Allie, I’m thrilled to be calling you with an offer. Sometimes these things take time, and I apologize for the delay. I want you to know how excited we are, and we’re hopeful that you’ll join our team.”
Perhaps all of this seems pretty simple, and in a way it is. But we’ve seen too many managers handle this poorly by giving short deadlines or failing to stay in touch with the second candidate. Doing things well is worth it after the expense and investment of a process that brought us two viable candidates.