You’ve had a job open for almost a year now, searching for that perfect candidate. Your HR team has been on the hunt, you’ve been messaging your network for candidate referrals, and you even have multiple recruiting firms on the lookout.
Sure, you’ve interviewed plenty of solid candidates, but none of them has been that “perfect” fit, and in the time and with the money spent searching for this exact fit, not to mention the loss of production, you begin to realize that it is time to do something different.
You need to review your job requirements and determine the most important items, discuss with your HR team and recruiters the changes based on this determination, and look at and reconsider past candidates you interviewed.
Keep scrolling to learn what to do when you can’t seem to find that perfect candidate fit.
Table of contents
What to Do When You Can't Find the Perfect Candidate
Key Takeaways
- Reevaluate Your Job Requirements: Review your job requirements and focus on the most essential qualifications to avoid getting stuck in the search for the “perfect” candidate.
- Team Collaboration: Work closely with your HR team and recruiters to adjust your candidate search strategy and realign on more realistic expectations.
- Reconsider Past Candidates: Revisit previous job applicants who may have been overlooked — sometimes the right fit is already in your hiring pipeline.
Review Position Requirements
When your ideal candidate doesn’t seem to be out there, after months of searching, it’s time for you to reassess the job requirements.
Look back at your job description and determine which items are the most pertinent and which ones you can live without. Are there any requirements that could be easily taught to an experienced candidate or a candidate who is a great fit culturally and behaviorally?
Realign With Your HR Team or Recruiters
After you make your decisions regarding your “must haves” and “nice to haves”, it’s time to follow up with your HR team and recruiters. You need to make sure they understand the changes so they can readjust their search across job boards and such, ensuring they are not eliminating candidates that you are now more willing to consider.
Side note: At this point, it’s a good time to decide exactly how many recruiters you need. From experience, it’s never good to have many different recruiters calling the same candidate pool for the same job posting.
Reassess Past Candidates
Now that you’ve realized that it’s time to fill the role with a capable and experienced candidate who may not be your initially desired “perfect” candidate, it’s time to reflect on candidates you previously interviewed.
Was there someone you met with who had great experience and background, but was missing one small requirement? Is there a candidate who is quickly and easily trainable?
Review and initiate conversations with the candidates who could be possibilities. If they are still interested and available, bring them back in for another interview. Have them complete a talent assessment to gain more data-driven insights on the candidate, and allow them to meet the rest of the team. Reassess the candidate and decide if this is someone who could be successful in the position.
Redefine Your Hiring Strategy
We all want to fill an open position with that “perfect” candidate fit. However, sometimes the right candidate is directly in front of us and requires a small amount of training. I’ve always been a firm believer in molding and growing a team, hiring for character versus experience.
It’s dangerous to leave a position open for too long. You spend time and money that could have been spent training a qualified candidate on some of the trainable requirements. Production suffers and so does the rest of your team. When filling a tough-to-fill position be sure to continuously reassess your job position requirements throughout the selection process, keep your hiring team or recruiters informed, and consider past candidates who may be a potential fit.
Interested in utilizing HR technology to enhance your hiring processes and more quickly fill those more difficult-to-fill job openings? Book a demo with Spark Hire to explore our complete hiring software including our built-in Applicant Tracking System, Predictive Talent Assessment, video interviewing software, and much more!
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