When You NEED TO START Looking For Your Backup Candidate

by | Feb 2, 2016 | Bulls Eye Recruiting Blog | 0 comments

In a perfect world companies would always get the individual they wanted to hire. Unfortunately, all too often things seem to be aligning well for both the candidate and the company and then something goes horribly wrong. BOOM! It was completely unexpected. Organizations have already started envisioning how the “perfect candidate” would fit into the company’s future plans and for various reasons, it didn’t work out. The individual they wanted (the perfect candidate) wasn’t going to be a hire. Back to square one.

There is going to be a lot of heartache in 2016. Companies are going to have to have a “Plan B” because sometimes those ideal hires aren’t going to come to fruition. Whether is is within your control (the offer wasn’t timely enough) or completely out of your control (the job doesn’t meet the candidate’s work life balance needs), things are going to happen.

Simply put. Things happen and candidates have choices. What is funny about this is that most of the time there are signs that something is not going right. Most of you reading this have been in some sort of relationship that went bad. When you were in the relationship did you know at the time that things weren’t going well? Maybe you did and maybe you didn’t? Maybe you refused to see the obvious because you didn’t want to admit things were not going well.

Let’s look at this a little closer. When someone is looking for a job, response time says a lot about the candidate’s interest in the role. If someone returns a recruiter’s call promptly, you know that their priority is you and the opportunity you have to offer. If they don’t, chances are that you are not a priority. People in this day have a really difficult time saying “No” to people. They really have a difficult time saying “no” to people they have worked closely with in the recruiting process.

There could be a number of factors that delay responses. PlayingPoker

1. You may be going after a truly “passive” candidate. People are considering changes for the first time in years, but that doesn’t mean they will leave their current job for just any opportunity. It has to be the right opportunity.
2. You aren’t taking their personal needs into consideration. A job is a job- nothing more or nothing less. Sometimes jobs demand more than candidates are willing to give of themselves. Money isn’t always the driving factor. Work life balance, family, and children, are important. If you are going to travel 95% of the time and never see your family, it may not be a great fit.
3. The conversations they have had with the hiring managers weren’t overly impressive. I have seen it time and time again where candidates interview with hiring managers and while the hiring manager thought it was a good fit, the candidates weren’t impressed with the leadership, product, or service. Candidates will be cordial, but deep down they aren’t willing to make a change.
4. Another organization comes in with another opportunity. Sometimes you feel like you know everything you need to know about the candidate. You feel like you know who they are interviewing with and know all of their needs and wants. Candidates could be playing poker with you! Sometimes sharing too much information isn’t in the candidate’s best interest.
5. Too much time has passed and they have lost interest. Recruiting processes can be long. The more time you give a candidate to consider a role, the more time they have had to digest and overthink making a change.
6. You Rushed the Candidate. Sometimes the candidate just needs to take their time to make a decision. If they feel rushed, they may question their decision making. Every individual is different. Companies have to recognize what kind of candidate they are working with early in the process and respect the way they make decisions.
7. Sometimes You Just won’t know! Sometimes company’s do everything right and there is the “no decision” and “no response”. Don’t try to beat yourself up over these ones because at the end of the day, we are dealing with people and things just happen!

uhohAs a company, our first initial response is typically the right one. The longer I am in recruiting, the more I realize this as the truth. If there are any clues early in the process that any of these things are occurring, then it may be in your best interest to have a “plan B”.It is also very important to not put all of your eggs in one basket. A “plan B” is just smart business. To start the recruiting process completely over after investing time and energy with a candidate is exhausting and frustrating.

@willrecruits
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