Executive Search Partners at Degree6 have been approached many times before, by clients looking to re-recruit for positions, where a candidate has recently been on-boarded, but has under-performed, under-delivered and ultimately failed to stay the course.
It’s disappointing when new hires do not work out and a drain on business resources, time and money.
Our client’s, repeatedly tell us they have spent sufficient time advertising, interviewing, short-listing and reference checking suitable candidates to finally get to the stage where they feel they have secured the perfect candidate. Yet still this “perfect candidate” has not met with their expectations when they have joined and the whole process has been a waste of time for all parties involved.
What’s causing this failure in the talent acquisition process???
Firstly, lets clear up the myth, there is no such thing as the “perfect candidate”. Just in the same way, there is no such thing as the perfect job! Candidates are people and whilst they can hold all the relevant qualifications, attributes and skills which are backed up with prior experience and a great personality. When it finally comes down to it, nobody is perfect and there will always be room for improvement and areas of weakness which require further personal development.
This is not necessarily a negative point; you may just need to be realistic with your expectations and be willing to compromise in certain areas. If you can attract the best raw talent, with the relevant skills, experience and mindset you desire, then you can often work with employees to mould their skill-set and attributes to fit perfectly with your specific business requirements.
Ultimately when it comes to choosing the best talent and candidate for the job, in many cases making the final decision always comes down to a level of compromise. However, the selection of the talent initially starts at the very beginning with an accurate and clear job specification/description.
Every company will interview a candidate, this is a full assessment of the candidate’s suitability. However, it is rare that a company can honestly say that they will carry out a full and current assessment of a specific job before trying to fill it. Unfortunately, this is often where the problems begin and you will consistently see generic job specifications being distributed and advertised, which begin attracting the wrong type of candidates.
We know that candidates themselves are not generic, so it’s logical that it’s almost impossible to find someone to match a generic job specification and be a perfect fit. Realistically you are taking a big gamble and hoping for the best, by not evaluating the core skills required to be successful in the roles which your company needs to fill. You will have a much better chance of finding the right candidate, if you clearly define the job itself, then work towards making the match and acquiring the talent required to fill it.
Keep recruitment and talent acquisition simple, assess the job first to pin-point the top 6 key accountabilities. Then this will enable you to sift quickly and effectively through the talent pool to select the most suitable candidates.
By using this method and compromising where necessary you will find you will reduce turnover in recent hires and the knock-on negative effects of this cycle. You will also improve the odds of success when it comes to making the final decision and employing the right person and not the “perfect candidate”.