The job offer can be won (or lost) at the start of the process. Alignment on the role suitability, cultural fit and salary expectations should be established very early, to avoid any surprises when it comes to making an offer.  

Senior candidates expect a structured, efficient process. Along with the interviews, the offer process gives the candidate an insight into how the business operates. Moving decisively but thoughtfully sets the right tone, impression and intent of the business. Speed must be balanced with professionalism to avoid a chaotic experience. Make sure all internal approvals etc. can be covered prior to the final decision to move to offer. We consistently see that offers that are made swiftly have a higher acceptance rate.

Last year, a former client of ours verbally communicated that an offer was incoming for our candidate, only for the official offer to be presented nearly three weeks later. Positive momentum had then dissipated, and another competing company accelerated their process to offer stage, resulting in the candidate joining that business. Timing is critical. 

Making the offer should be personal and high-touch. This should come either verbally by the hiring manager or the search partner. This should then be followed up promptly with all of the details in writing. Some of our clients have really excelled at this, creating personalised decks for the offer, referencing why the candidate was chosen, what they can achieve in the role and looping back to the candidate’s aspirations and motivations. They’re also packed with content on the business culture which helps candidates create a stronger emotional connection to the business and gets them excited to join the mission. We’ve seen first-hand that these offer presentations rarely get turned down.   

The financial package needs to reflect both the seniority of the role and the market reality. Full clarity should be given on any variable elements and long-term incentives, e.g., equity. Your search partner should always advise on the candidate’s expectations when the candidate is shortlisted. Candidates are often well aware of the market benchmarks for compensation, particularly in highly competitive and high-growth areas like energy storage. A below market offer can risk eroding the candidate’s excitement and leave them demotivated even if they accept and can lead to offers being rejected despite strong interest in the role. 

Some level of negotiation should be expected at senior level. Being open and transparent about constraints is important, as is the willingness to flex where it’s possible. Avoid rigid “take it or leave it” approaches unless absolutely necessary. 

A key part of our role as a search partner is to anticipate and manage counteroffers. Businesses hate losing good people and when faced with a key employee resigning, many extend a counteroffer as an easy fix to avoid business disruption. However, counteroffers rarely address the main reasons the candidate was open to exploring new opportunities in the first instance. Your search partner should always prepare candidates for this eventuality during the resignation process and help candidates navigate through this. Top talent always has options, and your search partner should have visibility on the candidate’s situation and be able to advise on risk management to ensure your offer is accepted. The right advice at the right time aligned to the candidate’s main motivations can make all the difference.   

Engagement levels should be high during this time. We would encourage additional conversations with the hiring team so that the candidate can ask any additional questions and cover all of the details they need in order to make their decision. This is also an opportunity to reinforce the positive feeling and the impact they can have in the role. Keeping momentum is vitally important.   

Once an offer is accepted, you should quickly transition to pre-onboarding engagement, keeping up good contact levels until the candidate starts. If there are a few months before the candidate can start, try and meet informally, invite them to socials, introduce them to some of their future colleagues etc. Even just arranging a coffee meet can be a great way to keep engaged.  

 What separates successful offers from missed hires? It consistently comes down to five things: 

Once you’ve made the decision to proceed with a senior hire into your business and engaged with a specialist search firm, if you haven’t already, it’s time to map out your interview process.  

This is often neglected, with the interview process being made up on the fly. With over a decade’s experience managing senior level searches, I can say this rarely makes for a smooth process. Real consideration is required as to what you need to get out of the interview process, in order to give you the confidence to make a candidate a job offer. 

What are the most important things you need to find out from a candidate, and who is best placed in your organisation to obtain this information? Which members of your Exec leadership team need to be involved? Will your investors want the opportunity to interview candidates?  

What are you looking to achieve with each interview stage? Each stage should have a clear purpose, rather than merely getting multiple people to cover the same topics with the candidate. Decide who will be assessing different competencies. Everyone involved in the interview process should have a specific objective. 

Complete interview panel alignment is non-negotiable for senior executive hiring. We saw a C-level search fail when an interviewer, a direct report who felt threatened by the candidate’s incoming position, successfully derailed the process, creating a very poor candidate experience. Managing internal stakeholder dynamics early in the process is vital. 

Having a very clear process mapped out from the start and being able to communicate this with candidates, creates a more positive experience and impression of your business. It demonstrates your company is organised and that you’re taking this process seriously.   

We would recommend no more than three interview stages.  

Too often we have seen an ad hoc interview process with too many stages, end unsuccessfully. Candidates can get frustrated when new stages keep getting added, increasing the chance of losing great candidates to competitors who move faster and who are more decisive. We recently had a client that insisted on a seven-stage interview process with multiple stakeholders over the course of a couple of months. This was against our advice and subsequently resulted in their chosen candidate accepting an alternative offer. Time kills deals. 

It’s important to keep up the momentum in an interview process; to keep candidates fully engaged and motivated, to reduce the risk of them accepting other offers and to stop their enthusiasm from dwindling. When candidates have been shortlisted, work with your key hiring stakeholders to block out diaries and map the process out. You want to avoid weeks between different stages. You want this process to be as tight as possible to give you the best chance of a successful outcome. Unfortunately, we’ve seen many processes fail due to the interview process dragging on for months. Equally, I’ve seen slick interview processes that cut weeks off client’s time to hire, bringing forward the positive impact a new senior leadership hire can have on their business.  

One final tip, interviews are two-way processes. Remember to sell the opportunity of working for your business as well as deciding whether a candidate is the right fit for you. The last thing you want is to make a candidate an offer which is turned down because you missed the opportunity to sell your business and the role. Even in soft markets, top talent is always in demand, and always has options. 

Ross Hoare 

Your chosen search partner is representing your business in the market. Choose your partner wisely, you need to ensure that they are able to talk knowledgably and confidently about your business and the markets you’re in. The majority of the time they will be approaching passive candidates, those not actively looking to change roles. You need to be sure that they are best equipped to ‘sell’ the opportunity of joining your business. First impressions count a lot when it comes to attracting great talent, and you often only get one shot to convince a candidate that your opportunity is worth exploring.   

The investment of time at the start of the search can save weeks during the process. It ensures your search partner is searching in the right places, speaking with the right people, conveying the right messages, qualifying against the right criteria, and creating a smooth process with no surprises. Because as previously said in business and in hiring, no one likes surprises.