This is very much a candidate-driven marketplace, compounded by the baby boomers retiring, creating a huge shortage of talent. Nowadays, we are lucky to find 1 or 2 candidates for a job that are both qualified and interested. However, I still hear the same old phrase from my clients, “We need to see 2 or 3 more people to compare”.
No company wants to make a bad hire. But when you like a qualified candidate, you know. In most cases, you’ve been hiring people for your company for years; you know your culture and you have all the employees/colleagues currently in your company to compare the candidate to; that IS your comparison! If you wait to find 2 or 3 other candidates, you are going to lose this candidate to your competitors. Think about this from the candidate’s perspective; candidates often express if the hiring process takes too long, they lose interest in the position/company because they expect the company will be slow on everything if they work there (making decision internally, getting answers to customers, creating new products, etc).
Don’t wait to compare the talent in front of you to other “available” candidates, benchmark candidates to previous hires and current employees/colleagues. Review the traits and skills most important in your current employees and use that to gauge a new candidate!
