You’ve found the perfect person and they’ve accepted your job offer! Job done.

At least you think it is, until you get a dreaded email a week before they’re due to start or worse still, the employee doesn’t turn up on the day.

Why does this happen?

With nearly 60% of companies reporting having had a candidate become unresponsive after accepting a verbal offer, and 65% experiencing no-shows, the period between offer and start date is often a neglected part of recruitment.

And with some skillsets more in demand than ever and a shortage of candidates in the market, the chances of your future employee being approached during their notice period remains high. And with counter-offers more present than ever, there’s a chance they may decide to stay with their current employer after all.

Ensuring consistent communication helps to identify hesitancies and allows you to answer questions but more importantly, pulls the candidate into the culture of your organisation, making them feel involved and committed before they’ve even started.

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How to engage between offer and start date:

• Keep in touch - Communication is key and continuing to engage and interact with candidates post acceptance is vital. It could be a friendly chat, an introduction to the team or sharing some knowledge about the business.

• Keep them in the loop - If there are some changes internally or you’ve had a particularly good month, there’s no harm in sharing this information with them whilst they’re waiting to start. If there’s a big meeting happening, you may wish to invite them too!

• Invite them to socials - Break the first day anxiety by introducing your new employee to the team in a more social and relaxed environment.

• Send a welcome package - Nothing says welcome and we’re excited to be working with you quite like some freebies! It could be branded company goods, or a simple box of snacks - the choice is yours!

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Header: Image adapted from Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels