When hiring, it’s great to have multiple candidates who seem perfect for your vacancy. However, whilst it’s a brilliant position to be in, it also has its downfalls. What do you do when you have two perfect candidates and only one role to fill? How do you make the right decision to avoid issues later down the line?
Potential employees that are neck and neck for your vacancy are suitable candidates for a reason. You believe that both came across well in their respective interviews and could do the job well. But something must tip the balance in someone’s favour. So, how do you go about doing it to ensure you make the right choice?
DETERMINE WHAT YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS REALLY NEED
First things first, you need to know what you and your business need!
Skills, working history and personal attributes are what determine if an individual is the right fit for your business. And, as you have already narrowed down your selection to two individuals, as a hiring manager you will have already checked off the skills and work history against your job description.
So, you’ll need to weigh up the importance you have placed on skill set and dig deeper into those career histories. Perhaps one candidate has 6 of the 7 skills outlined in your job description while the other only has 4 of the 7 but has an extensive work history in a similar job role. You may well decide that the individual who holds more of the desired skill set will be a better fit for the job than the individual with the extensive work history.
Perhaps skill sets and working history are just a ticking box and it is really personal attributes you’re after for your business. Maybe it’s more important for your next employee to be an enthusiastic go-getter who can hit the ground running, or it may be that you’re in need of a methodical visionary who can in time grow with the business’ bigger picture.
Only you as the employer really knows how to compare such factors. One thing you need to always remind yourself of is, ‘what does my business need’?
CULTURAL FIT IS KEY
Cultural fit between business and future staff is not to be underestimated and is by no means an easy thing to get right. You can read our blog about that here.
A factor, often overlooked during the hiring process, is how personality fits between potential new employees and current employees. You’ve spent hours on the recruitment process to get the ‘perfect-fit’ for your job vacancy only to find that ‘perfect-fit’ clashes with your existing team. Management disaster! Your working environment has been disrupted and your working day as you know it will be different. There’s nothing worse than having someone come into the workplace that can dictate the mood of the whole office for the worse, or perhaps just doesn’t work in the same way as the rest of your team, making teamwork difficult.
Personality goes a long way, and finding someone you and the team really gel with is vital. That’s why we always suggest a second interview…
THE SECOND INTERVIEW
Bringing your two contenders back into the office for a second interview is an excellent way to determine how they will fit into your workplace on a more personal level. This time around, nerves have most likely settled and it’s fair to say their guard will be down, meaning you can interact with them on a more personal level.
You could even take this opportunity to give them a tour of the office to see how they interact with the rest of your team, this also gives your team the chance to give you some feedback on how they feel the potential candidate will fit it. It’s always a good idea to gauge how your existing team feels about someone new entering the circle.
TRUST YOUR GUT… OR JUST ASK GCB!
If you’ve trialled these steps and still aren’t sure and aren’t in a position to hire both candidates, the best advice we can give you is to just trust your gut. Alternatively, you can get in touch with us and we can take all the stress out of your recruitment process.
We do this for a living, and we’re pretty damn good at it.
We are very proud at GCB to be one of the top recruitment agencies in the region! Whether you are recruiting for an estate agency job vacancy or a jobs in construction - whatever the sector, we're here to support you.