Offer exceptions using custom opening field

Permissions: Job Admin who can manage custom fields and edit offer approvals; Site Admin who can create and override default approval flows

Product tier: Available for Advanced and Expert subscription tiers

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. 

Example: Let's say you can hire as many sales executives as you want, but their salary must fall between $50,000–$60,000. If you want to offer a salary of $65,000 to one candidate, Greenhouse Recruiting will trigger additional approvers — maybe the CFO and CEO — to sign off on the offer before you can extend it.

Offer exceptions can be configured either 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 job field, please click here

In this article, we will cover how to enable offer exceptions using a custom opening field through the steps below.

 

Create custom opening field

To begin setting up offer exceptions, click the Configure icon Configure-icon.png in the upper-right corner, then navigate to Custom Options in the left panel. 

Configure page with an orange box around the Custom Options menu option.png

From the Custom Options page, click Openings under the Company Custom Fields section. 

Custom options page with an orange box around the Openings link.png

From the Custom Fields: Openings page, click Add Field

Opening fields page with an orange box around the Add field button.png

On the New Opening Field page, give your field a name. This field appears on the Manage Openings dialog window for each of your jobs, and will be used to set the range for the salary, stock options, and so on allowed to be granted in a candidate offer on that job.

Once you have given your custom opening 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. 

Note: Offer exceptions work only if your custom opening field has a field type of Currency range or Number range. If your field is created as any other type, you must delete the custom opening field and create a new custom opening field set to one of the appropriate types before you can configure offer exceptions. 

New opening field page with an orange box around the Field Type dropdown options Currency range and Number range.png

We recommend checking the boxes marked Required and Changes to this field require reapproval to ensure the values entered cannot be changed by users wishing to avoid additional approvals. 

Checked boxes Required and Changes to this field require reapproval.png

Click Save at the bottom of the New Opening Field dialog box when finished. 

When a user adds an opening to a 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. 

Note: If you leave the left box blank, the minimum value will be 0, and if you leave the right box blank, there will be no maximum. Please check with your Finance department before offering a salary of infinity dollars.

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This new custom opening field also appears for existing openings, but won't contain values unless a user navigates to the job's Approval Details page to edit the opening and add values to the field. 

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Create custom offer field

To create a corresponding custom offer field, navigate to the Configure icon Configure-icon.png in the upper-right corner, then click Custom Options in the left panel.

Configure page with an orange box around the Custom Options menu option.png

From the Custom Options page, click Offers under the Company Custom Fields section. 

Configure page with an orange box around the Offers link.png

From the Custom Fields: Offers page, click Add Field

Manage offer fields with an orange box around the Add field button.png

On the New Offer Field page, give your custom offer field a name. This field appears in the Create Offer dialog 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.

Note: A custom offer field can be configured to track for exceptions only when the custom offer field is first created. It is not possible to edit an existing custom offer field to be used for tracking exceptions.

New offer field page with an orange box around the link Track this field for exceptions.png

Select the range field to check against dropdown appears. Click the dropdown to select the custom opening field created in the previous step. 

New offer field page with an orange box around the drop down menu

Note: If the custom opening field you previously created does not appear in the dropdown, the custom opening field likely was created with a type other than Currency range or Number range. In order to configure the custom offer field to track against the custom opening field, you must delete the previously created custom opening field and re-create it with an appropriate type. A custom field's type cannot be changed once the field is created. 

Finish configuring your new custom offer field as desired, then click Save at the bottom of the page when finished. 

Configure offer exception approvals on job

Next, you will configure the approvals chain to be executed if a user creates a candidate offer that falls outside the allowed range for that opening. 

To do this, navigate to an existing job, then click the Approvals tab. Confirm the custom opening field has a range entered; if no range is entered yet, click the Edit Job & Openings button at the top right of the page. 

Jobs > Approvals page with an orange box around the Opening salary field.png

On the Job Info page, find the Openings section and enter the range to be checked against in your custom opening field. Click Save Changes at the bottom right of the page when finished. 

Edit Job & Openings page with an orange box around the opening salary range.png

Once you have confirmed the custom opening field has a range, locate the Offer Approvals section at the bottom right of the page, then click the Pencil icon edit.png to edit. 

Approval details page with an orange box around the Edit pencil near Offer Approvals.png

Click Add Approval Step

Offer Approvals section with an orange box around the Add Approval Step button.png

Add the approver(s) 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. 

Click Save when you are finished.

Edit approval step with an orange box around the

Confirm your offer approvals chain looks as intended, then click Done to save your changes. 

Offer approvals section.png

Use offer exceptions

When creating an offer for an opening, any fields outside that opening's approved range are highlighted in yellow to draw attention to the range violation. 

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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 user(s) required to issue Offer Exception offer approvals then receive an Offer Approval Requested email, which indicates the range violation. 

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