Losing People At Job Offer Stage Due to Salary? Find Out Why!

You’ve spent time interviewing the perfect person for the role you’re desperately trying to fill only to find that when you make the job offer, you don’t quite get the rapturous response you were hoping for.       

Instead, you get push back on the salary you’re offering – sound familiar?

Salary negotiations are often the final step before sealing the deal on a job —or the one reason a promising opportunity collapses. Ultimately, both the company and the potential employee want things to work out but can it really all fall apart over a few quid?

Absolutely it can.

And when it does, it’s really easy to look for someone to blame.

“The candidate clearly lied about what they were looking for”

“The recruiter wasn’t honest with them about the salary bracket”

“ They’re being offered more than what they’re on now, what’s the problem?”

We’ve been in recruitment long enough to be part of many salary negotiations and whilst there’s not always someone to “blame”, there’s always a reason as to why these things happen.

Let’s dive into this in a bit more detail, explaining the common reasons job offers can fall apart when it comes to those all important numbers.

Misaligned Expectations

An employer can be restricted to a tight budget or pay tier. If there is not going to be ANY chance for negotiation, this should be made clear in the initial stages of the application/interview process. If you’re working to a salary bracket, you need to manage expectations that to get the higher end of the bracket, you’re looking for XYZ skill set.

Candidates can often pitch themselves at a lower salary in the hope they interview well and can negotiate up at offer but that’s not always possible due to constraints within a business, being upfront about it from the start should hopefully ensure a candidate know and understands your position.

And perhaps you’ve not understood the market and what your competitors are actually paying – always good to get a recruiters perspective on this throughout the hiring process.

 Lack of Transparency

Yes, this can be an issue amongst ALL parties involved.  As recruiters in the middle of the candidate and company, our job is to find out what the candidate is looking for and to make sure that aligns with what the company is willing to pay.

A candidate will tell us what they’re looking for and it’s our job to discuss whether that’s a realistic figure in todays market (and for our client they’re looking to interview at).

Failure to bring up salary conversations until the last minute is rare but we’ve certainly heard it happens and is a surefire way to ensure a job offer breakdown.

This one’s on you…

You wrote your job spec to include “and other responsibilities”. But when a candidate finds out through the interview process what those other responsibilities are, it can add a whole new perspective on the job. And they believe it’s worth more than your original offer.  Be transparent about what the job involves and ask questions along the way to either the recruiter you are working with or the candidate directly regarding their thoughts so far.

Get your FULL offer ready before you put it out there.

It can be really easy to get so excited you’ve found someone for the role that you throw a number at them and wait eagerly for their yes. But candidates want to consider the full package – including commission structures, bonuses, benefits, annual leave. It may not always be about the basic salary but if other area’s of your offer fall short, they may want compensating with a higher wage.

Situational changes.

Life happens. Interview processes can take weeks. During that time, candidates can find themselves with a mortgage or nursery payment increase, an unexpected large household bill, a partner who’s just had to take a pay cut…  None of these things can be helped or is anyones fault. But it can mean that needs change and it’s possible you can’t facilitate that.

Compromising is key.

Expecting some kind of wiggle on the salary, particularly for those highly skilled people is probably wise. But if you know you’re not able to budge on it, what else can you do to show someone that you do value their experience?  Adding in salary reviews once probation has been passed is a good way to show your investment in an individual- just make sure you adhere to it!

Salary negotiations fall through not because people are greedy or unrealistic (for the most part!) and nor do they not want to work for you. It’s largely because expectations, communication, and timing fall out of sync.   

Getting everything to come together is a delicate process but one that a good recruiter can help you with and try to mitigate losses of great people for you.

If you’re in the Business Travel or Travel Tech sectors are looking to recruit in any part of your business, drop us a line to see if we can help.

[email protected]

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