Leading With Your Best Offer - The Emerging Recruiting Trend of 2019

There are two competing strategies for negotiating with a new employee who is about to join your company, but only one of them is expected to become one of the biggest recruiting trends of 2019. Do you know which one it is?

Option One: Offer a realistic but low offer for salary and benefits, expecting that the candidate will give you a counter-offer.

When you use this strategy, you know that the offer is going to go up during the negotiation, so you won’t end up actually paying the person as low as you’re offering.

Option Two: Make a competitive offer, your very best offer, in fact. Leave only a little bit of wiggle room for increasing pay and benefits during the negotiation.

The risks of this one are obvious: not being able to can’t match a counter-offer if one is made by someone who assumes you gave a low offer in the first place, and you may end up paying someone more than they would have been willing to work for.

Which method is the best strategy for 2019?

If you would automatically choose option one, you may be working from an outdated hiring and negotiation model. Yes, negotiation is still an important part of the hiring process, but it looks quite a bit different from what it did even ten years ago. It’s not exactly a bad strategy, but we’re currently working in a candidate-driven economy, and expecting to start low and then respond to a counter-offer can definitely have some unanticipated negative consequences!

Is it possible that option two has been because you’ve tried the first option before, and it has led to you getting abandoned by exceptional candidates who simply don’t seem very invested in the negotiation process? Instead, they seem to look at your offer and pass on it because it isn’t “worth their time,” even though they should know that you’re open to a counter-offer! This frustrating experience is why a lot of people go to the second option, but let’s consider some of the other reasons why this strategy is gaining popularity as we move into the 2019 hiring year.

Why is leading with your best offer such a good idea?

You may be wondering, why would a job candidate disregard a realistic, reasonable job offer instead of making a counter-offer? Isn’t that a risky part on their part? How do they know they’ll get something better elsewhere?

Candidate-driven markets require new strategies for hiring because candidates simply behave differently when they have the upper hand. Now that there are more job openings than there are qualified candidates, the most qualified job seekers don’t have to “settle” for something they don’t want, such as an initially lowered salary offer.

A decade ago, when unemployment was higher, the job market was a lot more competitive for qualified candidates. At that time, top talent would jump at the chance for a job that was going to pay the bills. People didn’t want to take a lot of risks in the negotiation process. But as the unemployment rate has continued to decline for nearly ten years, that has changed. Today’s top tier job seekers know that they are in high demand, and if you don’t offer them what they’re looking for, they are happy to move on and look for something else.

Reasons to act fast

In 2019, hiring managers and recruiters need to act fast in order to avoid losing their candidates to competitors. As recruiting experts, we recommend working quickly to process candidates through the interview process and get to the point of offering a stand out, competitive job offer.

After all, a candidate who is receiving two or three job offers probably isn’t going to negotiate extensively with the lower offers. Employers who would be willing to pay more than their initial offer may not get the chance to sweeten the deal because the candidate has already moved on.

Keep in mind that there are situations in which you may need to take a more complex view of the situation. In some industries, job seekers definitely still expect to actually be paid about 10% more than what you originally offered. You should be prepared to negotiate thoroughly, and don’t inflate your offer beyond what is competitive just because you want to win over candidates. At the same time, you can’t expect to continue hiring people like you did ten years ago.

How can we help?

At Select One, we are hiring experts. We know how to find the best candidates, take potential new hires through the interview process, make the tough decision between two qualified applicants, and negotiate for a salary and benefits package that makes the employer and the new employee happy. We’ve evaluated the growing trends in recruiting and put together a free offer that you can download called Recruiting in 2019.

We would also love to talk with you about how you can meet your recruiting goals in 2019. Contact us to learn about how you can recruit the best possible new candidates and help your business grow this year!