Extending an offer

Offer summary call

• Attendees: Recruiter, Hiring Manager, Candidate.

• Duration: Each candidate offer summary call will be slightly different, time estimates below are included as approximation to ensure all points are covered.

• Preparation:

  • Have your offer summary created and ready to present
    • Step 1: Create the offer summary by clicking “Generate” in the Offer Details section of the candidate’s Greenhouse profile, and select the appropriate offer summary.
    • Step 2: Recruiter will download the offer summary as a Word Doc and then convert to PDF. Recruiter will then send to the Hiring Manager and Director, Technical Recruiting (if applicable) for review.
    • Note: If you do not download the summary as a Word Doc first and then convert to PDF, the icons and formatting will have errors.
  • Check that the previously discussed start date still falls on a Cohort start date.
    • If it does not, the Recruiter must be sure to find an alternative date during the summary call. Any exceptions to that rule require prior approval.
  • Recruiter and Hiring Manager should calibrate on alignment regarding how best to approach the call.
  • Recruiter and Hiring Manager should pick 3-4 of their favorite quotes about the candidate from scorecards submitted by interviewers during the process to reiterate excitement of the potential of them joining the team.

• Offer summary call goals

  • Convey to candidates how excited we are about the prospect of them joining the team and how much value they will add to Sourcegraph.
  • Ensure candidates have a good understanding of our compensation philosophy, their salary, perks, travel (and benefits, if applicable) and equity.
  • Answer any questions the candidate has and gauge how the candidate is feeling about the opportunity.
  • Determine a start date and schedule a follow-up call to answer any questions.

• Offer summary call walkthrough

  • (2 min) The Hiring Manager or Recruiter kicks off the call to give the candidate feedback and tell them why we’re excited about them. They will read a few of their favorite feedback quotes from the interviewers.

  • (~15 min) Recruiter shares their screen to display the offer summary document and will walk through each slide with the candidate. After each slide, Recruiter will ask the candidate if they have any questions about the information displayed. Important to ensure the Offer Summary Call is interactive and not a presentation

  • Slides that the Recruiter will cover:

    • Total Rewards Summary
    • Your Offer - At a Glance
    • Your Offer - Perks
    • Your Offer - Benefits (If applicable)
    • Your Offer - Stock Options
    • Hypothetical Stock Option Scenarios

  • (~10 min) Recruiter will ask the candidate how they are feeling about the offer and opportunity to gauge the chances of closing the candidate. Asks if they feel comfortable to verbally commit.

    • If Yes
      • Recruiter reconfirms with candidate a previously discussed start date.
      • Recruiter covers following topics (DocuSign, Welcome email from People Ops, New Hire Video) etc.
    • If No
      • Recruiter will ask to address any concerns on the call.
      • If candidate needs time to think through the offer, Recruiter will schedule a follow up call with candidate within 24 hours.

  • (1 min) Recruiter informs the candidate that they will send a copy of the offer summary right after the call and to reach out if any questions come up. Recruiter and Hiring Manager reiterate excitement.

  Note for Recruiters: you can practice an offer summary call by reading a sample script

Offer process for PEO/EOR contracts

• If a new teammate are required to be hired via a PEO/EOR, the finance team will review this request before it is processed.

  • Step 1: The talent team should set the expectation with the candidate (non US based candidates) on our PEO/EOR onboarding process. This should be completed as early as possible in the hiring process.

  • Step 2: If a candidate required to be hired via a PEO/EOR, then the talent team should request approval from finance. This should be communicated to the #finance-talent-collab channel.

  • Step 3: Finance will review the cost implications, as well as the implications associated with taking on additional headcount in certain countries.

  • Step 4 Finance will aim to respond within 24 hours.

    • Should additional approvals be required, Finance will initiate this part of the process.

  • Step 5: Follow PEO onboarding process

• Talent & People team members can read more about our international hiring process in the source of truth documentation.

What is a counter-offer and why do they happen?

A counter-offer is an offer made in response to another offer. In a recruitment scenario, it is when the current employer of the candidate reacts to the candidate’s decision to resign. They do this by making an offer, a counter-offer, usually better than the offer we made. The 3 most common components are:

• More money – Simply an increase in salary
• Promotion – That promotion that the candidate has been chasing
• Benefits – More equity, more vacation etc.

Why make a counter-offer?

There are a few reasons why employers make counter-offers:

• The cost of recruitment and training – Recruiting and training a new employee is expensive.
• Loss of income – The candidate is working on something important or the loss of the employee will impact the workload for the remaining team.
• Pride – Some companies simply do not like losing talent to the competition.

Managing a counter-offer

How do you manage a counter-offer? There are two important factors:

• Build rapport - As you go through the process, build trust with the candidate. You are the subject expert matter so they will trust your opinion. As you build a relationship, you will learn about their goals, motivations and pain points, and the pull and push factors. This will have a big impact if they either accept or reject the offer.
• Know your business space - This will help you build trust but also allow you to use market insight to show the candidate that things won’t improve if they stay or to remind them why they wanted to switch roles to begin with. Maybe they are leaving a legacy space that has not seen growth for the last few years.

It is important to understand that counter-offers are not always a bad proposition so understanding both the pull and push factors are very important. You don’t want to focus on the push factors if the candidate is more interested in the career growth potential.

Best practices

• Always make yourself available to speak with the candidate. Be ready to schedule a Zoom/phone call. Never do it over email since it is too easy to ignore.

• Listen to what the candidate has to say without dismissing their thoughts. You will use the information they share with you to build your case and make your list of pull and push factors.

• If they ask for time to think, ask them to schedule time to speak with you before making a decision. If you have built a rapport with them, this should not be a problem.

• Leverage stakeholders. Who did they click with? Find out and leverage them in the conversation or have them speak directly to the candidate.

• Be patient and empathetic. Changing your job is a big decision and some people need more time than others.

• Throughout the interview process always remember ABC: Always Be Closing! Every conversation with the candidate should be a closing conversation. If the process has been done correctly, there should not be any surprises at the end. If there are concerns, we should be ready to address them right away.

• Sometimes you have to let them go. In the end, you want to work with passionate and motivated people. It is good to know when to cut your losses.