🔮 Understanding What the Candidate Wants

Our previous post discussed what to do when a candidate rejects your offer.

HR professionals and recruiters face a key challenge: identifying the candidate’s preferences and aligning them with what the company can offer: salary, growth opportunities, non-financial benefits, location, work format, etc.

❗️ Sometimes candidates don’t know what they want themselves

When asked a seemingly standard question by HR, “What’s important to you in a company?” a candidate might reply, “That’s an interesting and difficult question!” and start thinking.

That’s why having this conversation is important, even after a rejection. It might turn out that your company can meet the candidate’s needs.

Here are some questions to consider:

➤ “What’s important to you in a job offer?”

➤ “What criteria do you use to compare offers?”

➤ “Under what conditions would you accept our offer without hesitation?”

➤ “What could your current employer offer to make you stay?”

➤ “What are red flags for you in an offer — salary, tasks, role, team?”

HR can help the candidate create a scorecard — a table where various factors are assigned numeric values. A scorecard makes choosing an offer less emotional, explains Oksana Prutyanova, analysts and data scientists recruitment lead at NEWHR.

Here are a few angles to consider when discussing an offer with a candidate:

1️⃣ What does this job offer in the long run?

In other words: what will accepting this offer bring to the candidate when they interview at their next company? A more strategic career outlook might make one of the offers more appealing than it initially seems.

2️⃣ Why are you being paid this much?

Some companies compensate for downsides — outdated tech stacks, less desirable industries — with a higher salary. Candidates need to understand what they might be sacrificing for a bigger paycheck (if that’s the case) and what “more money” gives them in the long term.

3️⃣ What did you like about the competitors?

If the candidate chose another offer over yours, ask why. Their answer might reveal unexpected opportunities for negotiation.

For example, the candidate says: “I chose company W because they have a great analytics team.” But the HR knows that W’s team is mostly junior. Even if you don’t know this, you can do some research — check LinkedIn to see who’s on W’s analytics team, or gather references.

Another example: the candidate liked the team leader at another company. But the HR knows that this manager is about to leave (for example, they’ve seen their resume floating around). This could give HR a hidden advantage in the negotiation.

👉 Analyzing competitors has another benefit: it helps clarify the candidate’s preferences.

Imagine this dialogue:

🤵HR: Were there any offers during your job search that you regret not being able to accept? What did you like about those offers? Why didn’t things work out?

👩‍💻Candidate: Yes, I spoke with Company X. They were looking for a head of analytics. I liked the culture, the leader, and the team. But we couldn’t agree on the level. I was at their head level, and they were looking for someone one step below.

Notice the order in which the candidate listed her priorities. This information can be used to make your offer more appealing.

💙 NEWHR Recruiting can help you find IT specialists of any level to meet your business needs. Fill out the form or write us at contact@new.hr 💙