Perfect Candidates . . . Possible or Impossible?

Purple Squirrels or Unicorns are what professionals in the recruiting industry call a “perfect candidate” which exists in an employer’s dream or imagination.

These perfect candidates have multiple diverse skills and experience that are essentially impossible to find in one person. Or, at best, it is difficult to find a person who is good at all the diverse skills required.

In the real practical world and often due to budgetary reasons, many businesses need to hire people with specific skills and experience that are not synergistic. An example is hiring a Sales Manager that manages a small sales team AND is also responsible for individual sales production. This taps into conflicting behaviors . . . mentor & coach salespeople AND excel in selling. It is difficult to be great at both, so one of these skills may suffer results.

Here are three adverse effects to your hiring initiative that may occur while in the hunt for a Purple Squirrel.

1.     Long, costly hiring processes – Not uncommon that a search for a Purple Squirrel may last a long time. After spending a lot of money in a frustrating hiring process, companies eventually realize their job criteria and expectations may need to be revised to align with the reality of the current candidate marketplace.

2.     Positions go unfilled – If positions are critical to the growth of your company, having unfilled positions can be costly in terms of lost revenue or reduced productivity due to unmet company goals.

3.     Pressure on existing staff – If unfilled positions push extra work to other staff members, turnover could occur due to stress, burnout or resentment. And, depending on the job, there could also be lost opportunity costs, particularly for sales-related roles.

If your expectations exceed marketplace reality, consider the following actions to avoid searching for a needle in a haystack.

·        Adjust criteria to focus on the most important responsibilities of the job

·       Split a job into two roles when the current role has two competing skill sets

·        Raise the compensation package to match current market demands

·        Expand search outside your industry or consider remote workers

Setting realistic search criteria at the start of your next hiring initiative will save you time, money and frustration.

If you would like to improve your hiring results, give us a call at 317-578-1310 for a complimentary discussion on strategies to effectively recruit people with blended skill sets.

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clifford@safarisolutions.com
317-578-1310