You may have previously seen the article about finding the “perfect squirrel” for your organization, or the perfect candidate who can excel your business to the next level. Every company wants one – and they are out there – but what could it cost your company to keep searching and searching for these rare candidates?
Aside from the obvious monetary costs of a lengthy hiring process, it can seriously hurt your company in other ways, too. The truth is, sometimes it isn’t worth your while to have an ongoing search for the “perfect” candidate, and here’s why:
- The perfect candidate doesn’t actually exist.While there are some remarkable employees out there in the world, it can be impossible to find one that checks all of your boxes. Prioritize what you need your employee to be able to do, and be prepared to train for the rest. Remember, you can train job functions, but you can’t train attitude. It might just be better to do a faster search for a candidate with great potential and enthusiasm, and hire for that rather than wait for a purple squirrel to show up.
- You miss the opportunity to hire a great candidate. An ongoing and lengthy search for the perfect candidate will force you to put great candidates on hold – and remember, this is an employee-driven market. The best employees will have other options, and they won’t wait around for you to make that decision. Your competition will end up with your great potential employee if you leave them waiting too long.
- Your current employees will burn out. Between balancing their daily tasks and searching for a new team member, your hiring managers and HR staff can burn out. If this process takes too long, they are sure to lose interest in the candidate search, and begin delivering subpar work from their usual standards. It’s a lose-lose situation all around, and can be cured by a quicker hiring process.
While you may desire to find the perfect employee, a lengthy hiring process likely won’t help – no matter how thorough you think it is. In most cases it is more efficient to have a quicker, streamlined process that will find a great candidate who can perform the most important job functions and is ready to start learning the job right away.
