Food for thought for companies still sending a traditional, PDF-based offer letter: You might as well be delivering it via the Pony Express. The outdated PDF offer letter is a thing of the past – and you are putting yourself at risk of getting beat by companies who create digital offer experiences for a generation of tech-savvy candidates.  

In today’s candidate-driven market, companies need to focus on creating an exceptional employee experience from the very beginning. Plus, digital platforms allow you an immediate, comprehensive insight into what candidates care about most.  

Here are four reasons to implement employee offer microsites and digital offer letters into your recruitment processes NOW: 

Stand Out 

PDFs fall flat with a generation of recruits who have grown up in a highly digitalized world. Substance is still king, but don’t think style points don’t matter – they do! A simple text-based offer just won’t land the same as an aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly digital offer experience.  

With virtual offer letters, you position yourself to set the pace instead of playing catch up. And you demonstrate your dedication to employee experience from your earliest interactions.  

Best Foot Forward 

By creating a digital offer experience like your company’s workplace environment, candidates get a taste of what working for you might be like. Even the smallest details matter; think about how often you pass on recruits because of resumes with unreadable typefaces or poor formatting.  

If a candidate can’t demonstrate excellence in a snapshot, it’s difficult to trust they would perform any better for your company. This holds true for how top prospects evaluate new job opportunities, too! A high-quality, engaging digital offer letter shows candidates your commitment to quality. 

Speed 

Digital strategies for offers have proven to increase the speed of acceptance and lower the negotiation cycles. A shorter turnaround time means less time your company needs to allocate resources toward the hiring process. And lengthy hiring processes often result in current employees shouldering an extra load until the gap is filled.  

You don’t want employee satisfaction to fall under the weight of added responsibilities – with an easy-to-deliver, easy-to-navigate digital offer experience, you can expedite that time between offer and acceptance. 

Intel on What Candidates Care About Most 

Perhaps the greatest distinguisher between virtual offer letters and their text-based counterparts is the built-in intelligence available within the digital medium. With the ability to track clickthrough rates and time spent within any particular feature, your company leaders and hiring managers don’t have to guess about what it is candidates value most within a total rewards compensation package.  

This also allows you to amend offers, if necessary, based on the components of the offer a candidate visits most often. And, over time, a company can acquire enough information to assess trends in their hiring processes and implement data-driven best practices to streamline their method and land top candidates.  

As employee benefits packages become less traditional, so too should the way those total rewards are presented. If you’re offering more than a standard salary + medical and 401(k) benefits, you’re already demonstrating a commitment to an exceptional employee experience.  

What better way to showcase your company’s evolving benefits structure than a next-level digital offer experience? You want to be sure your style matches your substance, after all.  

In today’s world, a PDF offer just doesn’t make a splash. Or even a ripple.  

So, if you’re still sending out traditional offer letters, you’ve fallen behind. Not only are you losing time and digital intel internally, but you’re also likely losing talent to companies with a greater wow-factor. If you want to be competitive in this job market, you need to consider evolving your offer process to fit the demands of this digitally sophisticated generation of candidates.