Offer exceptions give your team the ability to set allowed ranges for salary, stock options, or any other numeric custom fields, and then require additional approvals if an offer is created outside the allowed range.
Offer exceptions can be configured so the offer is checked against a custom job field, or so the offer is checked against a custom opening field.
To learn more about tracking exceptions against a custom opening field, click here.
Create a custom job field
To begin setting up offer exceptions, click the Configure icon on your navigation bar, then select Custom Options on the left.
Click Jobs under the Company Custom Fields section.
Click Add Field.
Give your new custom job field a name. This field will appear on the Job Info tab for each of your jobs and will be used to set the range for the salary, stock options (and others) allowed to be granted in a candidate offer on that job.
Once you have given your custom job field a name, use the Field Type dropdown to choose either Currency range or Number range, depending on which is more relevant for your use case.
Checking the boxes marked Required and Changes to this field require reapproval ensure the values entered cannot be changed by users wishing to avoid additional approvals.
When finished, click Save.
When a user creates a new job, they'll be required to enter a salary range (or other numeric range) to be checked when a new offer is created for a candidate.
This new custom job field also appears for existing jobs, but won't contain values unless a user navigates to the existing job's Approvals tab to edit the job and add values to the field.
Create a custom offer field
To create a corresponding custom offer field, open the Custom Options page by clicking Configure > Custom Options > Offers. Once you're viewing your list of existing offer fields, click Add Field in the top right corner.
Give your custom offer field a name. This field will appear in the Create Offer box when drafting an offer for a candidate. Once you've given your custom offer field a name, click the Track this field for exceptions link.
A Select the range field dropdown appears. Click the dropdown to select the custom job field created in the previous step.
Finish configuring your new custom offer field as desired, then click Save when finished.
Configure offer exception approvals on a job
Next, you'll configure the approvals chain to be triggered if a user creates an offer that falls outside the allowed range.
To configure offer exception approval on a job, navigate to an existing job, then click the Approvals tab.
Confirm the custom job field has a range entered. If no range is entered yet, click Edit Job & Openings, then enter a range in the field.
Locate the Offer Approvals section at the bottom right of the page, and click the Edit icon .
Click Add Approval Step.
Add the approvers who should be required when an out-of-range offer is created. Check the box for Required ONLY if offer fields are out of range. This ensures this step of the approvals chain is activated only if the offer is out of range.
When finished, click Save.
Click Done to save your changes.
Use offer exceptions
When creating a candidate offer, any fields outside the approved range are highlighted in yellow to draw attention to the range violation.
If any fields are outside the approved range, the offer exception step of the offer approvals chain is activated. When the user creating the offer requests approval, Greenhouse Recruiting triggers the job's standard offer approvals chain and includes the offer exception step.
The users required to issue offer exception offer approvals receive an Offer Approval Requested email, which indicates the range violation.
Use existing custom job field and custom offer field for offer exceptions
Your team might have an existing custom job field and/or custom offer field you wish to begin using for offer exceptions. This is only possible if the existing field is using the Currency range or Number range Field Type.
Since the Field Type can't be changed on existing fields, in many cases, organizations choose to archive the existing field and create a new one that uses the correct field type.
If you need to create a new field, follow these steps:
- Archive the existing custom job field. This means that the field will not be available when creating new jobs and won't show up in reports, but can still be referenced on individual jobs.
- Create a new custom job field to replace the deleted field using the Currency range or Number range Field Type.
- Create a corresponding custom offer field, and link the new custom job field to the new custom offer field as outlined above.
Existing custom offer field
After it's created, the option to track the field for exceptions is no longer available. Because of this, many companies choose to create a brand new custom offer field when setting up offer exceptions.
To create a new field and remove an existing one, follow these steps:
- Archvie the existing custom offer field. The data will still be referencable on individual offers, but can't be completed on new offers. Before archiving the field, mark it as "optional." This allows your team to remove historical values from existing fields and save them if needed.
- Create a new custom offer field to replace the deleted field. Be sure to configure the new custom offer field to track against an exception when you create the field. If this option is not selected during creation, the new field cannot be used as part of offer exceptions.