The Hindu Business Line : Between offer and acceptance lies the challenge

New Delhi, Nov. 18 It is testing times for HR managers and recruiters. As candidates – flush with offers – tend to switch companies after pocketing the offer letter, headhunters are devising strategies to reduce drop-out rates and bring about better offer management.

According to a recent research by human resource professionals, the dropout rate between receiving an offer and its acceptance hovers around 30-45 per cent. A large number of offers lapse with candidates either not taking up the job or leveraging the existing offers for better opportunities.

Companies, on their part, are now often playing it safe by giving e-offers. HR managers are also making potential employee- employer relations more interactive to plug the gap besides making an emotional connect that would make it far more difficult for the candidate to opt out.

The phenomenon cuts across sectors. It is presently the highest in IT/ITES services, retail, manufacturing and healthcare.

On-boarding Process

Mr Shankaran P. Raghunathan, Chairman, Blueshift, an IT education service company, says: “The recruitment process in India is still very unscientific. But globally the ‘Offer Management Service’ or ‘on-boarding process’ begins the minute prospective candidates post their bio-data.

According to him, several companies are also using specialised software to make the recruitment process cohesive.

Compressed service

The Ma Foi COO, Mr E. Balaji, says, “With dropout rates becoming a menace, companies are making the on-boarding process a compressed service by itself. From the time a candidate’s resume arrives on the desktop, the entering process is made easy by constant follow-ups and tackling evasive behaviour”.

“A lot of companies are giving offers on Excel sheets rather than on the company letter-head for details of salary break-ups. This helps prevent candidates from window-shopping for jobs,” he says.

Mr Ganesh Chella, CEO of HR consulting firm Totus, says: “A good recruitment is like a commitment. Wherever recruitment is a number game and not a humane-game, this problem is bound to crop up. Invariably, recruitment is carried out by agencies rather than senior company officials. This lack of emotional connect is also seen as a reason for increased drop-out rates,” he said.

Observing that it is essential for senior company officials to spend at least 30 per cent of their time in scouting for talent, Mr Chella reveals that top companies such as Reliance, RPG and Mindtree have their senior management monitoring the recruitment process.