Dive Brief:

• As many as 28% of candidates said they accepted a job offer but then backed out, a new Robert Half survey found. 
• The reasons candidates gave for reneging on a job offer were: received a better job offer (44%); received an acceptable counteroffer from a current employer (27%); and heard bad things about the company that made the offer (19%).
• The top five locations where most candidates reneged on job offers were San Diego; San Francisco; Chicago and Houston (tied for third place); Austin, Texas; and Miami, according to survey results.

Dive Insight:

HR expects some candidates to change their minds after accepting a job offer. The time, effort and cost of finally finding the right candidate, only to have the person accept then turn down an offer is, however, a major setback; employers must start the recruiting process all over again, or hope the runner-up candidate is still available. While some reneging can't be avoided, the reasons respondents in the RH survey gave for reneging on an offer may give employers reason to pause — particularly those that end up rejecting an offer due to hearing bad stories about an employer.

Job seekers have easy online access to company ratings — only 1 in 5 will apply to a company with a bad reputation. To combat this, organizations must ensure that the recruiting process sends the right cultural message and presents an honest assessment of what working at the organization is actually like. Transparency is key; candidates often leave soon after beng hired if the job wasn't what they expected. To get by in a tough talent market, organizations may want to keep a pulse on their workforce by improving the mechanisms by which they both give and receive feedback and promote a brand they take pride in to applicants.