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The Science of Recruiting - Part 4: Uncovering and Handling Major Candidate Concerns

By Lou Adler, January 23, 2004

The best active and passive candidates always have multiple opportunities. As a result they need more convincing that the job you're offering is better than the other opportunities they're considering. Recruiting is not about finding and hiring candidates who need another job. Anybody can do this. Recruiting is about influencing top candidates who don't need your job to consider it anyway, and then keeping them involved at every subsequent step in the hiring process.

Read more articles by this author.

Related Topics:

The Science of Recruiting, Networking, Recruiting

Related Articles:

The Science of Recruiting - Part 10: Closing and Negotiating Offers - Advanced

The Science of Recruiting - Part 9: Negotiating and Closing Offers - The Set Up

The Science of Recruiting - Part 8: Influencing Hiring Managers - The Hiring Decision

Getting top candidates to want to learn more about your opportunity is what it takes to be a top recruiter. You can't do this by browbeating, pushing, or overselling. You do it by knowing the job extremely well, being a great interviewer, being a great listener, asking great questions, and being relentless.

Getting top candidates to want to learn more about your opportunity is what it takes to be a top recruiter.

When dealing with top people, expect resistance at every step. This is because top people don't look for jobs or accept offers the same way most candidates do. Since they're looking for a better job, not another job, they want proof that it is better. That's why they need more information. This includes more details about the job, the company, and the people involved. They'll balance long term growth against short term issues compensation, job scope, and location. They'll also decide with others, so you not only need to convince the candidate, but also all of his or her advisors.

Don't get aggravated when issues and concerns come up. Expect them. Then handle them. Be concerned if they don't come up. In this case the person you're working with probably isn't as good as you think, or they're not interested in your job, or they don't believe you can help them. In any case, you have a problem you need to address.

First off, you need to uncover their concerns. Here are a few techniques you can use after each interview:

1. Just ask them what they think about the job. Ask about what they liked and what they disliked. Write these down. Prepare a checklist and review each item on it - job scope, boss, projects, team, tools, challenges, location, facilities, compensation package, to name a few. Often candidates aren't interested in the job, because they don't know what it is. In this case handling a concern might be something as simple as providing basic information. To get at this and more serious issues, put their likes and dislikes in priority order. Now you have some of the information you need to move the process forward.

2. Determine overall interest. After each interview ask candidates to rank their interest level for the job on a 1-10 scale. Explain that a 5 is average, a 6-7 is somewhat interested, and 8-9 is extremely interested, and that a 10 will never happen. Then go on to say most people accept a new position if the job is an 8-9 in comparison to other opportunities. This is a good way to reduce expectations. A score below a 5 is not worth proceeding. Ask the candidate to explain their ranking, whatever it is. This gets all of their good/bad issues on the table. Then ask them what they would need to learn in order for the job to be an 8 or a 9. This is a job they would want, and would accept an offer, if one were ultimately extended. Make sure you say this. You want to plant early in the candidate's mind that an offer might be extended, and if so, it will be accepted.

3. Uncover the real concern. It's important to test the importance of each concern to see if it's a deal-breaker. For example, let's assume a candidate tells you he's not interested in pursuing the job since it doesn't seem big enough. It's important to first understand and acknowledge the concern to determine if it has merit. If so, then ask, "If I can work with the hiring manager to expand the scope of the job, and if she agrees, would it then make sense to meet again?" This is called "closing upon an objection." You basically are saying, if I can address that issue, shouldn't we proceed. If the candidate balks at this time, it means this is not the real concern. Your job is to then find out what the real issue is, and see if you can overcome it.

Here's a basic principle you should keep in mind as your uncovering and addressing candidate concerns.

Adler's Principle on Handling Concerns: the bigger the concern, the more time, information, and people are required to address it.

Some concerns are superficial and can be handled simply with more information. Others are more involved and could require changing the scope of the job, increasing the compensation, expanding the vacation, or changing a fundamental policy in some way. While you can often negotiate these, it's still important to first understand them, and then coordinate the resources to effectively address the issue.

Relocation is one of these major concerns. Most recruiters will instantly dismiss a candidate who says they won't relocate. They best recruiters don't. Neither should you. This is where being relentless is important. If you have a great job opportunity, and a perfect candidate you owe it your company and the candidate to press the issue. About a third of the time you'll be able to convince the candidate to actually come in for an interview, and you'll be able to actually hire about 50% of these people. Not taking no for an answer is the first step. The second step is to follow the "big issue/more time" principle above. You won't be able to change the person's mind in one phone call. It will probably take about three or four. Follow these steps when you get the "I don't want to relocate" retort to your opening offer.

First, accept it, and find out why.

Two, find out if they'd be open to a job if it were local. 99% of time they'll say yes. This allows you to engage the candidate and obtain their job profile.

Three, if the candidate is exceptional, tell them why, and that you'd really like to talk to them about this job. They won't want to, but go ahead and give your two-minute job compelling job pitch, and network with the person. Then get the name of the best person they know.

Four, at the end of the call, tell the candidate, you're very impressed with their background and that you really would like the person to reconsider the job opportunity. Then back off, and thank them for the referral, and ask the person to contact you if they know anyone else you should network with.

Five, a few days later call the person, and mention that the hiring manager would like to call them. See if they'd be open to this, and if so, arrange the call. Tell them the call is purely exploratory, but that the hiring manager was so impressed with the candidate's background that she wanted to call despite the candidate's reluctance. About 50% of the candidates will go through with this step.

Six, during the call the hiring manager can either invite the candidate for a full-day, exploratory tour of the facility, or just say that she's impressed, and would like the candidate to at least consider a personal meeting.

Seven, the recruiter needs to follow-up and arrange this meeting. If you can arrange this on-site meeting, you'll, more times than not, be able to hire the person.

Here's why. During all of this phone calling and soliciting, the candidate has been seriously intrigued by the opportunity and has told his or her family about it. The idea of relocating, while initially not likely, becomes more acceptable as more is learned about the job. If the job truly offers an exceptional career opportunity, than the negatives of relocating become less significant when balanced against the positive aspects of the new job.

Most candidates make career decisions without all of the required information. It is up to the recruiter to make sure the candidate doesn't withdraw from the process until he or she has the correct information to make a fair comparison among the competing alternatives.

While relocating is one of the more difficult concerns to overcome, the process described above offers a useful lesson for addressing any potential problem. Most candidates make career decisions without all of the required information. It is up to the recruiter to make sure the candidate doesn't withdraw from the process until he or she has the correct information to make a fair comparison among the competing alternatives. Sometimes the recruiter can instantly provide the information. Sometimes the hiring manager needs to personally engage in the process and provide a different perspective. Sometimes the hiring manager's boss or other potential team members need to get involved. Sometimes it takes days or weeks to make sure all of the information is presented. Regardless, it's up to the recruiter to coordinate all of this activity. This is what it frequently takes to hire the best people. No matter what it takes, it's always worth it.