Companies often face candidate refusals at various stages of the recruitment process, but the most painful rejections tend to occur at the final stage when a job offer is made.

According to the Glassdoor report, 17.5% of job offers in the US are rejected, meaning 1 in 6 offers are met with rejection. While an unaccepted job offer does not directly cost the company money, it can represent wasted time and resources, opportunity costs, and potential reputational damage.

After getting another refusal from a potential hire, a company management may think: “Well, probably other companies paid more”. Not to face a refusal again (even increasing the hourly rates of developers, QA engineers, or designers), I’d try to identify more reasons why a business doesn’t seem attractive to ace specialists.

What Developers, QA Engineers, and Other IT People Weigh When Choosing a Company

In the IT sector, same as everywhere else, you can meet specialists inspired mostly with figures, but the majority of IT specialists consider budgets only a part of their riders. They want to be appreciated, pass through a hassle-free recruitment process, and get opportunities to shine within their roles. And they can afford to choose the projects they like, looking at the decent salaries even for juniors and not very big differences between offers from different companies. Talent shortages in tech, you know, motivate most companies to pay not less than average market prices for software development.

Then, what is the main recruiter's task? Find developers for a startup or established business that will suit a project and show them how a company can meet their needs.

Getting Offers Accepted: Tech Recruitment Dos and Don’ts

Why do tech candidates go for competitors, and how is it possible to outplay such situations? All the dos and don'ts below are based on the real experiences of tech recruitment services providers.

The specialist has accepted the offer with higher compensation

❌ Don't attempt to match or exceed the offer Immediately. Reactively offering a higher compensation may not address all the underlying reasons for preferring other companies.

❌ Don't take it personally. Avoid expressing anger or disappointment towards the specialist. It's important to remain professional and understanding of their career choices.

❌ Don't undermine the competitor. Speaking negatively about the competitor can reflect poorly on your company and seem unprofessional.

❌ Don't cease communication abruptly. It's beneficial to maintain a professional relationship for potential future opportunities.

✅ It's really hard to compete if the competing offer is much higher. However, it’s possible to win the battle for talent if you emphasize other advantages of the position, such as development opportunities, work with modern technologies (if applicable), teamwork, remote work, etc.

✅ Showcase your company culture. Go beyond just benefits, highlight what makes your company special and how the role contributes to the bigger picture.

The specialist didn’t like the recruiting experience

Candidates pay attention to how the recruitment process goes.

✅ Recruiters should attentively listen to candidates during the interview, answer their questions, and provide full information about the vacancy.

✅ It is also very important to provide clear timelines for all the interactions and timely inform candidates about how they are progressing through the interview stages.

✅ If it’s a technical interview, try to gather as much information as possible to avoid clarifications after the meeting and give candidates opportunities to ask questions.

✅ The atmosphere of communication during all the meetings matters. From the first touchpoint to the final interview, ensure all interactions are professional, courteous, and showcase your company culture.

With us, all your candidates
highly rate the recruitment flow

Start team scaling

Another project was more interesting

Candidates often choose a project they are really interested in. If a person is motivated by a particular domain, they are likely to prefer a position which falls within that domain. Filtering out uninterested candidates during recruitment is good for a project, as you cannot expect a full engagement into the project life from them.

✅ Right in the job description, indicate that you prioritize candidates who want to develop in your domain.

✅ Align with candidate values. During interviews, understand what motivates the candidate and demonstrate how the position aligns with their career goals.

✅ Ask candidates if they are waiting for another offer. Of course, they can stack the cards, but you can still notice the discomfort on their side if they do wait for more interesting offers.

Another company sent an offer earlier

The speed of feedback and decision-making is very important. Typically, candidates choose competitor offers because they are actively looking for a job and are ready to join the first company that is ready to sign a contract.

There was a significant delay between interview stages

❌ If there is more than a two-day gap between interviews, candidates may go to other companies that make decisions faster.

✅ Despite the confidence of founders and C-level executives that this is an employer's market, good candidates may have about 10 offers in review. So the faster you process recruitment, the better.

The pitch was voluminous

❌ Many candidates drop out of the process if they see a lengthy task as one of the stages.

✅They choose companies where this stage is short and can be completed in 1–2 days or not at all.

❌ Avoid laundry lists in job descriptions, that might deter qualified candidates.

✅ Create targeted job descriptions by clearly outlining the role's requirements and responsibilities, but focusing on the most essential aspects.

There were many interview stages

When we work with US or Western European clients, many tech managers often want additional stages with internal recruiters, which lengthens the overall process time. Yet, this strategy can be a reason for loosing great candidates.

❌ Don't drag out the interview stages unnecessarily. Respect candidates' time and aim for a smooth, efficient process.

✅ Not to exhaust candidates, arrange 2-3 interview stages.

There were many changes in the recruitment process

❌ If interview stages were suddenly reordered or new stages were added, candidates may consider a company as non-reliable and go for competitor offers.

✅ To make the positive first impression, a company should stick to the announced recruitment pipeline.

There was poor feedback

❌ Candidates don’t like when a company doesn't provide feedback on time or provides it too dry.

✅ Good recruiters keep candidates informed not only throughout the process, yet send a detailed feedback even if they're not moving forward.

Increasing Offer Acceptance Rates With a People Partner

While copying the competitors’ hiring strategies may put you in a deadlock, successful team scaling starts from the talent market research, forming agile development team structure, and defining the strong sides of your project. You can delegate all those tasks to your HR team or third-party staffing agency. The second option can be especially attractive if a business needs field-tested hiring solutions today, not in a few years. Usually, an HR team should pass a pretty long way before it becomes seasoned enough to reach high offer acceptance rates. We have been accumulating the necessary knowledge for 13 years. Now, our offer acceptance rate is above 90%, and it is your offer acceptance rate when you hire with us. It takes significant resources to hold this bar as trends of the tech talent market are constantly changing. If you task us with Talent Acquisition and Recruitment for your tech project, we could achieve better staffing results together.

Do you think, I am to finish having said that and invited you to consider an external People Partner? I’ll tell you more, candidates can change their minds and opt for competitors after they have accepted your offer. Also, 24% of software developers get counter-offers from their previous companies, which increases the risk of loosing good candidates. If you hire with Outstaff Your Team, seeking a new team member is on us if a hire leaves unexpectedly.

Got tired of offer rejections? You are not alone, claim a professional consultation. As a result, you’ll get a working plan how to fill the skill gaps in your unique team ASAP.

by Ann Kuss
on July 23, 2024. Share on LinkedIn Post on Twitter

Ann Kuss is the CEO at Outstaff Your Team. After 11 years of expertise in building remote tech teams for startup unicorns and global tech brands, Ann decided to lead a new venture aiming to reinvent the way international tech teams scale. Throughout her career, Ann hired specialists for countless tech positions from more than 17 countries on all major continents. Ann graduated from Kyiv-Mohyla business school, is an MIM Kyiv alumna, and regularly takes part in mentorship programs for junior tech talents. Ann actively promotes knowledge sharing and curates Outstaff Your Team blog strategy, preferring topics that solve practical needs of IT leaders. She believes that structuring business flows (including hiring) is a well-planned journey with predictable and successful outcome.