Never Fall in Love!

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I recall having an Executive vying for a $200k role a few years ago. We were down to the last three, he was a stand-out and the CEO was honed in on him well above the other candidates. He won the role, was offered and declined – he just wanted to meet the CEO (in an attempt to build his network) and win the job (for his ego). His intention was never to take it, and of course we will remember his name forever for all the wrong reasons!

Falling in love

You know that moment when you interview everyone and there is a clear winner? The other two candidates aren’t even in the same ballpark, and you just want to close it out and get the person over the line. It happens quite often, even to us. I remember one of my clients saying to me once ‘I never fall in love anymore’ – we were having a difficult time recruiting for her and she had been burned by a few ‘ex-lovers’ (top candidates) before. Her broken heart made her see everyone on the same playing field now which really made it difficult to sell the strong ones!

Putting all your eggs in the one basket

Maybe she’s right though. How often do we put people up on a pedestal only to be let down? We’ve often spoken to new clients that had given up during the recruitment process due to losing candidates. At the end of the day they have other functions of the business to manage and having to restart the process or go back to the hundred or more applications and start again doesn’t seem like a viable option. A lot of it does come down to falling in love. You see a heap of applications, one stands out and then the others fall in and around that applicant. Historically, you stop the screening process, move to interview, and the person does a killer interview but then never proceeds due to another offer or just declines with no reason. You don’t want to fall into this position!

How to win

There are a number of tactics to ensure that you can bring the best people into your team and business:

  • Have a good value proposition around your role and the company – the more attractive your role and the company are, the greater the chance of attracting good people
  • If you are a smaller business that doesn’t have a big network to draw candidates from and are solely relying on advertising, keep the job post open for the entire period you have paid for. SEEK is 30 days, keep it open for the 30. You may find the ideal candidate on day 3 but you should build a pool of candidates in the background in case that person does not take the offer – you need a fallback plan – keep screening them all
  • Don’t fall in love! There may be a stand-out candidate but take the blinkers off and look at others that may have skills you could use in the business. The stand-out serves the current function but the hidden ones may actually be the better pick that takes you to the next level
  • Outsource it to a specialist that understands how to attract candidates, has a wider net to cast and also has retention strategies to keep a candidate interested in the role during the process
  • Act swiftly – the good ones do get snapped up quickly. A drawn out process can mean calling to offer the successful candidate, only to find they have already taken another role

If you need any further information or would like to find out more about how we can help your business, please call us on 1300 558 979. We are always happy to discuss how we can help you achieve your recruitment goals.