Rescinding an Offer of Employment
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Has anyone out there ever rescinded an employment offer? What were the reasons, how did you communicate it to the person, and what was the end result? Any fall out? We hopefully won't have to go down this road, but I'd love to hear other people's stories for some insight!
Comments
We made the offer Friday night, and she needed the weekend to think about it. That was fine, but as of yesterday she still felt she needed more time to think about it. I told her we were withdrawing the offer, and I picked someone who was a bit less prone to playing hard-to-get.
I don't have to do it often, but there have been several different reasons. The most frequent is gamesmanship. If I make a fair offer to the candidate and they seem to be holding out trying to get more pay, etc., there's a good chance I will rescind the offer. Especially if the pay I'm offering is exactly what the applicant requested on the application - which was the case with the offer I rescinded yesterday. I've also rescinded for failing drug tests, background checks, or waiting too long to schedule the drug test.
I'm very matter-of-fact about it, and I don't waver. If I rescind because the candidate is suddenly demanding more money, and they have a change of heart about it... tough luck. The last thing I want to do is load up with employees who think they can play games with HR.
Was that an HR position? If not, would you have proceeded the same if it was a position reporting to a manager who was adamant about hiring that particular person?
Sharon
I agree with many of the reasons Frank listed for withdrawing offers - those are a no-brainer to me - if you don't show true initiative pre-hire, how am I to expect you to show initiative once you're on the payroll?
It's too bad you can't find a place for this person somewhere else, but if you lost clients you are probably already overstaffed. It wouldn't hurt to let other local HR people know about this employee, in case they need someone. (Are you part of a local SHRM chapter?) You have already done alot of the groundwork for them, and it can save them some time.
As far as your case goes, it sucks but since you lost the client and no longer need the candidate, you really don't have much of a choice but to rescind the offer because it would put a hardship on you.
I had a position open and now it has been put on hold. Probably will not reopen but I will let them know we will keep their resumes on file. I have never had to rescind on an offer but have been on the other end because of business closing reasons. Not a nice thing to have to do.:(
Have also had to rescind for other reasons. Just last week, made an offer and the applicant was taking days to accept -- finally admitted he was waiting for another company to make him an offer. Well I decided that being the case, we needed to rescind our offer -- to much of a chance he would start and then quit because a better opportunity came along. I verbally (politely) advised that we preferred to have him take the time necessary to decide where he wanted to work.