By Kevin Roth

She can start right after her bonus gets paid out 4 weeks from today.

– “We need her sooner”

Are you able to give her a sign-on to offset that bonus?

– “We can maybe offer her 25% of it in a sign-on if she’ll start in 2 weeks”

…..

We would all love a new hire to start ASAP, especially after a long search. But think about your messaging before you take a hard stance on any sort of timing.

Don’t answer right away when a candidate requests an extended start date. Take 24 hours to think about it first. That’ll give you time to evaluate it objectively and put yourself in their shoes.

Would you really walk away from 75% of a bonus over an extra 2 weeks?

Probably not.

In the heat of the moment, it can be annoying to have to wait longer than normal for a new hire. But in the grand scheme of things, having a candidate come on board happy and appreciative is certainly better than having to start a new search from scratch after turning someone off. The latter would likely also take quite a bit longer than 2 weeks!