Rescinded Job Offers Are Creating Yet Another Challenge For Recruiters And Hiring Managers

Positioning for future amidst tough market conditions

As if the jobs market was not volatile enough, recruiters and hiring managers have a brand-new challenge to deal with: a wave of rescinded job offers has candidates rethinking the opportunities they are open to and willing to accept.
 

As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, “Businesses in several different industries are rescinding job offers they made just a few months ago ... Companies including Twitter Inc., real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp., and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. have rescinded offers in recent weeks. Employers in other pockets of the economy are pulling away offers too, including some in insurance, retail marketing, consulting and recruiting services.”

Although the labor market remains strong overall, the Journal article states “jilted job seekers say they are tackling their new searches differently,” becoming more cautious and less trusting. Some are putting off quitting their old jobs until the last minute prior to starting a new one, while others are rethinking the types of opportunities they are even willing to consider.

The article also shares the names of several other companies (including Netflix, Pelaton, and Meta Platforms) that are dialing back hiring plans for the year ahead, and it highlights what this and the rescinded job offers are doing to the ways candidates will be evaluating job offers in the weeks and months to come.

Educating Candidates in a New Way

For many recruiters, TA teams, and hiring managers, the upshot of all of this is clear: they will need to pitch their companies and their jobs in a new way—educating candidates on how their companies are funded, the strength of their cash runway, and their ability to raise capital in the next one to three years.

This is especially true for startups, tech firms, and pre-IPO companies that lack longstanding track records in the marketplace. And with concerns of a recession looming, recruiters and hiring managers need to be able to make a strong case regarding their leadership teams and boards of directors’ experience and abilities to navigate rough financial waters.

The good news here, in addition to the fact that the jobs market is still strong, is that candidates continue to look for jobs that give them meaning and satisfaction, so recruiters and hiring managers can continue to pitch their companies on these terms. And the standard list of benefits and perks (fair pay and benefits, the opportunity for advancement, stock options, etc.) also still carries plenty of weight among job seekers.

However, because of the small but growing trend of rescinded job offers, more and more candidates are looking beyond the usual spiel from recruiters and hiring managers for evidence that a potential employer can survive a recession and is well positioned and managed for the future.

This is why recruiters and hiring managers must be aligned with their leadership teams, and their leadership teams must convey what is going on with the business regularly, so everyone can respond to the business pivots that always happen. Your candidates and employees will appreciate it and will be more likely to try again, and stay if business surprises are limited.

Author Bio

Kevin W. Grossman is the President of Talent Board and the Candidate Experience Awards. Kevin has over 23 years of domain expertise in the human resource and talent acquisition industry and related technology marketplace. He’s been a prolific industry writer since 2004 and his first business book on career management titled Tech Job Hunt Handbook was released in December 2012 from Apress. His second book titled Candidate Experience: How to Improve Talent Acquisition to Drive Business Performance will be released in 2022 by Kogan Page. Connect Kevin W. Grossman https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwgrossman/ Follow @KevinWGrossman https://twitter.com/KevinWGrossman