Have you ever watched the movie “10”? Our man lead was obsessed with Bo Derek – a girl he nicknamed “10” and tried to pursue throughout the movie. Until he hung out with her, he finally realized she really was not the perfect ten for him, and the true love was in front of his eyes. This scenario repeats over and over in recruitment process in any types of industries, both small and large companies. They constantly look for manpower based on the “must-have” factors, only think of immediate needs and ignore a bigger visionary. Here are the familiar perspectives:
Circumstance A:
Human resources manager wrote a job description. In which, he listed a series of requirements a candidate must have. And they started looking for who met all these conditions. The time passed by, there was no one could fulfill their needs: this one asked a too high salary, this one did not fit company’s culture, that one had too much other recruitment invitations.
They have ignored all applicants who just met only a few in a lot of these qualifications and also those who were suitable for culture and maybe could develop in the future. So the vacancy still be left. After calculate costs and affection of not hiring employee, they realized if they have chosen an imperfect person to train, improve them, they would have become a perfect piece for company.
Circumstance B:
Human resources manager and professional luckily hired a great candidate who has had all necessary demands that other companies desire to have. He was going to work and expressed a good attitude. But, due to his “high value”, he always received other invitations for a new job. In a short time, he gave you a letter of resignation. Congratulation, you used to hire a talented and ignore other applicants who could commit a long-time work just because of your job description. And now, you have to start again.
Circumstance C:
You (again) luckily and quickly recruited a person with all “should have” requests but this time he decided to stay in long term with you. This could happen, don’t worry, but just too small to compare with 2 perspectives above.
Today, there is a huge competition to get the talented candidates. In some areas, especially in technology sector, unemployment rate is very low. However, these companies still continues pursue "The Perfect 10". Try to think, then you will see this is so strange. First, clearly no one is perfect. People are not objects, plug in power and they’ll run. But, very, very much Recruitment Specialists rush in to look for a perfect candidate, ignoring the important factors such as ambition, attitude, intelligence, motivation of candidates. Therefore, they narrow the potential candidates by themselves.
The recruitment firms have succeeded because the requirements in the job description are more visionary. They look for both candidates with experience and skills as required and candidates have development potential. Maybe these candidates only meet 6 out of 10 qualifications but consistent with the company's culture and having ambition. They often develop quickly if they are assessed, appropriate training, and will work well (sometimes better) compare with "perfect" candidates. The most important, this recruitment form allows companies interview and identify potential candidates instead of just selecting talented candidates. These are two different categories. Potential candidates are not necessarily experienced candidates.
It sounds normal, but most companies still turn a blind eye with this fact. Like you, I extremely admire Superman. But that desire no matter what, both Superman and the ”perfect 10 points" candidates will not appear. Please change the criteria in the job description you will increase the opportunity to find prospective applicants.
Replies to This Discussion