Selling
the Candidate: How To Get the Ideal Candidate to Join Your Team
By Marc Mencher
Plenty of articles are devoted to tips for
finding a job. Even a cursory web search turns up a wealth of
information on resume writing, effective interviewing, and how to suck
up without slobbering. On the other hand, there is a dearth of
information for companies doing the hiring. The game industry is a
competitive one, and quality talent is vital to success. How do you get
your ideal candidate to work for your company? You have found the
perfect person you want to hire. Now, how do you sell that candidate on
joining your team? In Selling The Candidate, we will address
closing tips for hiring candidates, devising and extending offers, and
addressing counter offer risks.
Closing Tips for Hiring Candidates
Starting Off On the Right Foot
No management function is more critical
than hiring. Yet, surprisingly, many companies pay little regard to the
importance of an organized and professional hiring process. Selling the
candidate on your company begins with the very first interaction. From
the first phone screen to the final offer, the persons conducting the
hiring process represent the entire company. The way in which these
company representatives conduct themselves can make or break a candidate’s
decision as to whether he (for purposes of this article "he"
will represent candidates of all genders) will accept the position. The
entire process from beginning to end should be handled in a
well-organized and professional manner. Companies should approach each
candidate contact with a sense of purpose.Effective Interviewing: Overview
Beginning with the phone screen, approach
the interviewing process with the same respect you would expect from the
candidate. If you think this candidate has got what it takes, don’t
run him off before you get a chance for a face-to-face. If you scheduled
the phone screen for a particular time, be ready. Give yourself enough
time for an uninterrupted interview. Don’t do anything else during the
interview. Nothing is more irritating than the clickety-clack of
computer keys while someone is trying to engage in an important
conversation. Don’t take other calls during the interview. The phone
screen should last a mere 20 – 30 minutes. Whatever the other calls
are about, they can wait half an hour.
Assuming all goes well with the phone
screen, the next step is the office interview. Again, approach the
interview with the same respect you would expect from the candidate. A
disjointed and chaotic interviewing climate translates in the candidate’s
mind to a disjointed and chaotic working environment. Do not approach
the interview as if it were a casual "getting to know each other
conversation." This is someone you want to work for your company.
Keep in mind that the candidate is also interviewing you and your staff.
Be enthusiastic. Be professional. And be organized.
The Interviewing Process
Before the interviews begin, the
candidate should start the day with a representative from HR. Your HR
rep should sit the candidate down and provide him with a brief synopsis
of company benefits, stock options, and perks such as health club
memberships. The candidate should also be provided an attractive,
well-organized packet of information on the company that includes, for
example, information on the company’s history, recent company news,
and company product list. And, ideally, before the candidate ever
arrives at your office, you have also provided an interview schedule
that looks something like this:Friday, November 12, 1999
Interview Schedule for Joe Interviewee
– Producer Position
10:00am John Smith
11:00am Mike Jones
12:00pm Leave for Lunch
12:30pm Lunch
2:00pm Kris Johnson
3:00pm Terry Lee
Seeing the schedule before the day of the
interview, alleviates some of the candidate’s anxiety as to what will
transpire that day. Before the candidate ever sets foot in your
building, your company already looks organized and professional. A
schedule also helps keep the interviewing process on time and on track
as each of the interviewers should have their own copy of the schedule.
They will know when to wrap up the interview and where the candidate
should be taken next.
After the HR rep has briefed the
candidate, HR should take him on an enthusiastic tour of your facility.
At the end of the tour, HR should drop the candidate off at the first
interview. At this point, you’ve already made great strides in making
the candidate feel welcome and presenting your company in a positive
light.
Before we take the candidate inside the
office for the first interview, we need to discuss one of the most
common reasons a candidate turns down a job --- no one took the spouse
into consideration.
The Candidate’s Personal Life
While it can feel like all of your days
and nights are spent at the office, and that may be what you expect from
your new employee, the fact is that everyone has a personal life. From a
hiring perspective, all of the pieces may fit: the hire is in the
budget, the candidate has the skill set, the phone interview is a dream,
the candidate flies out and meets everyone. You like him and he likes
you. You put together a salary and bonus offer he can’t refuse and
(muffled gasp) he turns you down. What went wrong? Job offers that
require relocation to a new town frequently blow up in a company’s
face at the very last minute and no one seems to know why. Usually,
these sorts of fall-outs are directly attributable to a failure to
factor in a candidate’s spouse or partner. That partner has probably
never seen the new town, has no clue about housing, no friends, and no
job. No one asked. And she (for purposes of this article "she"
will refer to a candidate’s spouse or partner of all genders) isn’t
moving. Period.Recruiter Melanie Cambron recommends that
"from the very start, all other factors in the candidate’s life
should be taken into account and included in the interviewing process.
From the initial conversation with HR, that HR rep should be finding out
about the candidate’s family, why the candidate really wants to leave
his current job (if that’s the case), and whether the candidate and
his partner have talked specifically about moving to a new town."
If you want this candidate and the job
entails a move to a new town, you need to pony up the money and fly the
partner out as well. While the candidate is interviewing, she should be
set up with a friendly (but not pushy) real estate agent that is
well-informed about the city, its job opportunities, schools, crime
rate, etc. The spouse should also have lunch, dinner, or coffee with
people at the company at some point. The candidate’s better half needs
to be acknowledged so they feel a part of the process. And, quite
frankly, they ARE a part of the process.
The Office Interview
Now, back to the office interview. Before
HR drops the candidate off for the first interview, the interviewer
needs to be prepared. Even if you don’t have the luxury of an
organized HR department that has provided you with a schedule, you need
to take the initiative and set aside a reasonable amount of time for the
interview. Do not allow any distractions during this time. Do not take
any phone calls and do not allow any interruptions. Your attention needs
to be focused on the candidate. I know this sounds obvious, but as a
recruiter I hear the interviewing horror stories from candidates. For
example, there is a Creative Director at a very large development and
publishing company who is notorious for taking phone calls and, believe
it or not, reading and responding to emails during interviews. Not phone
interviews. Face-to-face interviews where candidates have been flown in
just to talk to him and there he sits in front of his computer reading
and writing emails. And he wonders why ideal candidates turn down his
job offers. Don’t do that.Be sure you have the information you need
in front of you including a scratch pad for notes, your business card,
an outline of questions you want to ask the candidate, and a copy of the
candidate’s resume that you have highlighted to show those specific
areas you want to ask about. Interviews can be stressful; a little
preparation can go a long way toward reducing that stress for both
parties. However, be sure to stay loose and flexible, too. A welcoming
approach and brief small talk will help establish rapport and ease
tension. Outline for the candidate what the interview is meant to
accomplish and describe the job in detail. State why the candidate is
interviewing and what kind of information you need from the candidate.
And, above all else, listen to the candidate.
The Questions
Candidates want to feel that they are
walking into an organized environment. Having a prepared outline of
questions help in that regard. However, simply copying down a list of
questions that you gathered from some hiring book years ago and now read
off the page will not help. The kinds of questions you ask and the way
you ask those questions can go a long way to selling a candidate on your
company. For example, an exceptional animator recently interviewed with
a new game company. Before the interview, he was unsure as to whether he
wanted to make the switch. After the interview he called his recruiter
and told her that he had been particularly impressed with the questions
that had been asked. Rather than asking those same, tired, overly
general questions like "where do you see yourself in ten
years," his interviewers had asked him the following questions:
[] What kinds of animation do you like?
[] What kinds of games do you see
yourself playing in ten years?
[] What kinds of animation do you like to
do?
This series of questions gave the animator the chance to really talk
about the games he liked to make versus the games he liked to play and
where he thought games would be in the next decade. He felt like the
company had actually given some thought to interviewing him and,
therefore, was really giving some thought to him.
On the other side of the proverbial coin
another animator was phone interviewing with another company. In this
case, the interviewer, in an uninspired and monotonous tone, read a list
of stereotypical questions. At the end of the interview, he asked the
animator to send in some samples. Later, when this animator spoke with
his recruiter, he said he felt it was pretty clear the guy interviewing
him was not interested. The candidate felt like it would just be a waste
of his time to send in any samples. The recruiter had received this same
feedback about this particular interviewer from other candidates. The
fact was, despite the uninspired questioning, the company was very
interested in this animator.
The questions posed to a candidate during
the interview can be a turning point. Every company should spend some
time working on the kinds of questions they ask candidates. The right
questions, and the way in which those questions are delivered, can bring
out the best in both the candidate and the company.
At the End of the Day
Once the candidate has made it through
the interviewing process, the company should have the candidate close
with HR. During the course of the day and the interviews, questions will
have percolated in the candidate’s mind and he will appreciate the
chance to ask questions and get answers before being on his merry way.
After answering the candidate’s wrap-up questions, HR should let the
candidate know that the company will talk and get back to the candidate
by a specific day. And, here’s the clincher, if you tell the candidate
you’ll be back to him with a decision by Tuesday, then be back to him
with a decision by Tuesday! Again, give the candidate the same respect
you would expect of him. If this is someone you know you want, chances
are others want him, too, and the longer you wait, the more time he has
to take other interviews and consider other offers.Devising and Extending Offers
Once the candidate has been through the
interview process and you still know that this is the candidate for you,
the time has come to devise and extend the job offer. You said you would
get back to him by Tuesday and so you shall. And when you do get back to
the candidate, you will present him with an offer that makes him feel
like your company is taking care of him. You want that initial offer
feeling to be a good one. Every aspect of the offer needs to be
right-on. Even if you nailed it on initial base salary and signing
bonus, if you miss the mark on relocation, for example, it will lessen
the candidate’s enthusiasm for your company. When you have to go back
and start renegotiating in bits and pieces, things can quickly go
downhill. As in the interviewing process, organization is key.
Furthermore, if the job offer entails a
relocation and a significant other, if you took the right steps early in
the process and included the candidate’s personal life in the
equation, you’ve significantly reduced the odds of your deal falling
apart.
Staying up to date on salary and bonus
information
HR should be in an ongoing process of
staying up to date on comparable salaries and bonuses in your area.
There are a variety of readily available resources. Working with a
recruiter can be particularly valuable in this area as recruiting firms
have ready access to information on salaries being paid by comparable
companies. For example, recruiting firms like Virtual Search, in
conjunction with companies like the Miller Freeman Game Group, conduct
annual game developer salary surveys. Also, if the job entails a move,
be sure to take into account the salary impact of cost of living
considerations – you can be sure that the candidate will be taking it
into consideration. For example, Homefair.com offers a free salary
calculator. According to the Homefair.com calculator, a homeowner making
$50,000 in Los Angeles would need to make $36,743 in Austin.
Relocation expenses
If the job requires relocation, you need
to carefully consider the relocation portion of your offer. Relocating
is more than throwing some furniture in a truck and hauling it across
the state or country. It is a wise idea to work with a good relocation
company to be able to devise an accurate relocation offer. In many
situations it’s a good idea to have the relocation company speak
directly with the candidate to get an even better idea of what will be
entailed in the move. The relocation company can then provide you with a
more accurate amount for your offer.
Outlining all of the benefits
When making your offer, make sure you
clearly outline all of the benefits your company offers. This reinforces
to the candidate what your company is willing to do for him. And
definitely do not assume that the candidate knows the benefits – list
all of them. It is far better to overwhelm the candidate with good news
than create a situation where the candidate has to come back and ask for
more information.
Going the extra mile
I cannot overstate the importance of
including the candidate’s personal life in the hiring process. Job
offers that were, by all accounts, merely a formality, have fallen
completely apart because a spouse didn’t want to move. If your job
offer entails a relocation, you are not just asking the candidate to
move, you are asking him to move his entire life and that life
frequently includes a spouse and/or family. At this point, you should
have already included the candidate’s family in the process. With the
offer, you need to go the extra mile by providing additional information
for the spouse such as housing and job information, a list of recruiters
in the area, as well as a list of websites that can direct the candidate
and his family to even more information about the area.
And, again, if you told the candidate you
would get back to him by Tuesday. You better get back to him by Tuesday.
Addressing Counter Offer Risks
If you are trying to snag a candidate
from another company, you run the risk of the counter offer. Once you’ve
extended your job offer, there is a good chance the candidate will go
back to his current employer and let them know that another company has
offered him a better deal. The best way to deal with the counter offer
is to address it before it happens. It is during this phase that working
with a recruiter holds an advantage. You don’t want to look like your
bashing the candidate’s current employer – the recruiter does the
dirty work. But whether you do it or your recruiter does it, the
following points should be addressed with the candidate to diffuse the
counter offer situation.
If they had really wanted the
candidate
Let the candidate know that you are aware
that if he goes to his current employer to discuss your job offer,
chances are good that they will counter offer with an equal amount or,
possibly, something greater. However, if that happens, the candidate
should take into consideration the fact that it took the threat of
leaving to prompt his current employer to cough up the money. The
current employer should have been paying the candidate his real market
value all along. If they have the money now, they’ve probably had it
all along.
The candidate would still be gone
In my years of experience working as a
recruiter, I have noticed one particular constant: if someone is looking
for a job, there is a reason. Once a candidate accepts a job interview
with a new employer, at least in his mind, he has already left his
current employer. Even if the candidate takes the current employer’s
counter offer, odds are he will be back on the market within six months.
Be sure to talk to the candidate about why he is leaving his current
job. Give the candidate the chance to talk through the reasons he
interviewed with your company in the first place.
Selling the Person
In short, how do you convince the
candidate you want to join your company? You’ve got to show him the
same respect you would expect from him. Be organized, professional, and
attentive. Candidates notice when you read your emails during an
interview. They also notice when you read a set of stereotypical
questions off a sheet of paper. And, they listen to their spouses. Your
ideal candidate may be the most meticulous programmer you’ve ever
seen. But that candidate is also a person. You’re not selling a
machine on your company, you’re selling a person. With just a little
thought, effort, and organization, you can get your ideal candidate to
join your team.
WRITER BIO
Marc Mencher
is a software engineer by training and worked for game companies like Spectrum
Holobyte and 3DO, before joining GameRecruiter, a
game industry recruiting firm. Marc's articles have been featured in GameWEEK,
GIG, and other industry publications. You can contact Marc
directly at
marc@GameRecruiter.com.
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