Make Your Job Candidates Say "I Do"

After what seemed like an eternity of reviewing resumés and conducting job interviews, you've finally decided which candidate you want to hire. Now it's time to offer them the job.
Before you get too excited there's something you need to remember: Just because you want this person for the job, doesn't mean they want you. When crafting your job offer, you have to make sure to give them every reason to say yes.

Since you have presumably dealt with this applicant for a while, you should have a pretty good idea of what it he/she wants. With that in mind, Barbara Mitchell and Cornelia Gamlem, in their book "The Big Book of HR," present 10 issues that are most important to job seekers:

• Commute;
• Salary;
• Incentive compensation;
• Time off benefits;
• Flexible schedule;
• Opportunity for work/life balance;
• Health and other benefits;
• Ability to progress in the organization;
• Training and development opportunities; and,
• Availability of coaching and/or mentoring opportunities.

It's not likely that all of these issues will be important to your preferred candidate but a good number of them probably will. It's up to you to determine which of these issues, if they are not met, would be the biggest deal-breaker. If this is someone you really want to work at your nonprofit, then you should do your best to accommodate them, or at least point out which issues you are most willing to be flexible about.

Finally, Mitchell and Gamlem suggest you include the following information in your job offer e-mail:

• State your enthusiasm for this candidate to join your firm;
• The start date for the job;
• Starting salary; 
• Additional compensation, if applicable;
• Contingencies, such as the candidate's references must check out, or he/she must pass the drug screen;
• Benefits summary;
• Reporting relationships;
• Date when offer expires; and,
• Place for candidate to sign if he/she accepts.