What to do when the short list of candidates doesn’t excite you?

We are in an incredibly candidate short market for most sectors and receiving your shortlist of perfectly fitting candidates may feel like a distant memory. You need to ask yourself what you should do when the short list of candidates doesn’t excite you.

It could be that you have the wrong recruitment partner and that they haven’t really listened or understood what you want.

But if it looks like one great candidate and two “fodder” candidates, there to just make up the numbers, I would call it out and ask why? It may be that candidates in such short supply mean finding more than one great one is not possible and waiting to look may mean that the great one gets snapped up by someone else. But, ask the question!

Clients sometimes say that it helps to have more than one candidate as there is a then a comparison which helps take the decision. That’s valid, but it’s also valid to interview one candidate and compare them to people already in your business (who are successful).

When we work with a client, if we find the one candidate that we feel is perfect then we will put them forward as the solution, explaining why. We don’t want to waste your time.

Equally if we can’t find anyone with the right experience, competencies and fit – we hopefully won’t take the challenge on. We know our market; we are specialists and we say it straight.

Now let’s talk about the shortlist for Prime Minister!

Alistair Moore

Alistair Moore – Chairman, Trace Recruitment