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 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 in the upper-right corner, then navigate to Custom Options in the left panel.
From the Custom Options page, click Openings under the Company Custom Fields section.
From the Custom Fields: Openings page, click Add Field.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Create custom offer field
To create a corresponding custom offer field, navigate to the Configure icon in the upper-right corner, then click Custom Options in the left panel.
From the Custom Options page, click Offers under the Company Custom Fields section.
From the Custom Fields: Offers page, click Add Field.
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.
A Select the range field to check against dropdown appears. Click the dropdown to select the custom opening field created in the previous step.
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.
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.
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 to edit.
Click Add Approval Step.
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.
Confirm your offer approvals chain looks as intended, then click Done to save your changes.
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.
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.