1. Using Recruiting
  2. What Happens When a Candidate Accepts a Job Offer

What Happens When a Candidate Accepts a Job Offer

When a candidate accepts a job offer, the state of the job application becomes Accepted. This is the final state in the Offer phase of the lifecycle. From there, various things can occur.

  • Immediately after accepting their job offer, the candidate will initially see their offer letter with any acknowledgment text shown above it, and without its light e-signature section if any.

  • The candidate can choose to return later to view or download their offer letter. On that page the offer letter will no longer include the initial acknowledgment text; instead, it will show any light e-signature information that was configured to display. This can include their full name, the date and time of their acceptance, and the IP address from which they accepted the offer. Alternately, if a user recorded the candidate's acceptance on their behalf, that person's name can be shown in this section of the offer letter.

  • Any other users will also see this offer letter with any light e-signature information from the candidate's acceptance, or the user's name who accepted on the candidate's behalf. This includes users who preview the offer letter from the candidate's job application and those who view it in the worker's Document Records where it has been automatically copied.

  • The latest generated version of the offer letter is copied to the Documents of Record.

    • If there is no offer letter configured for this offer, there is nothing to store in Document Records.

    • If the candidate's accepted offer letter hasn't yet been generated due to some BI Publisher issue, the offer letter is copied in the Documents of Record without its light electronic signature information if any. When the accepted letter does get automatically regenerated, that will be copied to Documents of Record as well.

  • The Progress tab of the job application shows that this offer has been accepted, either by the candidate or by the user.

  • If auto-progression was configured to move candidates forward from the status Offer - Accepted, it occurs immediately. This can be configured to automatically move all candidates, only internal or only external ones, or any subset of candidates as specified by your administrator. Immediately upon accepting the offer, candidates can move forward into any remaining custom phase, or into the final HR phase.

  • If any custom phases are configured between the offer phase and the final HR phase, then candidates can be moved into these states. They can be progressed manually using the Move action, or an auto-progression might be configured to move them here instead.

  • If no auto-progression and no custom phases are configured for this selection process, then:

    • External candidates remain in Offer - Accepted, and you can move them forward as needed.

    • Internal candidates automatically move forward into the HR phase. Which state they land in depends on the situation, the available headcount, and other factors.

When a candidate moves into the final HR phase, due to a manual action or an auto-progression, the candidate is put into the hands of the HR specialists. The following events occur automatically:

  • As soon as the candidate job application leaves the Offer phase, it's no longer listed on the Job Offers page in the Hiring work area, although the job application and its Offer tab remain visible within the requisition's list of candidates.

  • The states of the candidate's other active job applications, if any, change to Withdrawn by Candidate. Exceptions: The approval process continues for job applications in Offer Pending Approval. Also, job applications in Offer - Extended or later state (including the HR phase) remain untouched. You may want to manually withdraw the job application to avoid offering another job to the same candidate.

  • The number of hires on the offer's related requisition gets increased by one. If the number of hires now matches the number of openings and the requisition is configured to be automatically filled, it will be filled at this point.

  • Recruiters have no further influence on the job offer or on the candidate's job application. They can't reject it nor change its state by moving it forward. But they can still see its state change as the HR specialists process it through the HR phase.

  • The job offer becomes visible to HR specialists on their Job Offers page, from the Manage Job Offers quick action. HR specialists, not recruiters, are now responsible for finalizing the new assignment for the accepted candidate and their job offer. The state in which the candidate arrives in the HR phase will depend on whether they're a brand new hire or rehire, or a current worker moving within the company, or whether any duplicate or other error occurred.