You found the perfect candidate. Now what?

by Derek Gracey
Senior Associate Practice Leader at Charles Aris, the InterSearch Worldwide member in the USA

You’ve arrived at the moment you’ve been waiting for – you finally found the perfect candidate. Now what? It’s easy to be tempted to drop everything and rush to the finish line with your dream candidate, but there are a few important things to keep in mind:

Ask the right questions

Just because a candidate looks perfect on paper or sounds perfect on the phone doesn’t mean you should bypass your normal process. Ask the candidate all the right questions and vet their candidacy in full. How soon are they able to start? Will there be any challenges with relocation? Do their compensation expectations match the opportunity? How do they feel about going back to an office after they’ve been remote for the past two years? Are they in any other interview processes or do they have any offers in hand already? The goal is to prevent any surprises at the finish line.

Don’t take shortcuts

You might feel tempted to jump the gun and rush the candidate through the process, but it’s important not to take shortcuts. Follow the same process with this candidate as you would with others. Sure, you should move with as much urgency as possible, but keep the candidate experience in mind as well.

Be competitive

It’s likely your candidate is interviewing with other organizations and may have competing offers by the time you get to the finish line with them. With the continuing demand for talent we’re experiencing, now is certainly not the time to lowball a candidate with a mediocre offer. That doesn’t mean you need to give the candidate an offer that makes them feel like they just won the lottery, but you should put your best foot forward as much as possible.

Put your sales hat on

Find ways throughout the interview process to keep selling the candidate on why they should come work for your organization. At Charles Aris, we often talk about the four reasons A-players changes jobs, which can provide a helpful framework as you and your team interview the perfect candidate. It’s also important to sell all the way through the finish line and find ways to continue to recruit the candidate throughout the entire process.

Move quickly

When you find the right person to fill that mission-critical role on your team, move quickly but not hastily. You’ve probably heard the phrase “time kills all deals,” and that’s especially true when it comes to recruiting A-level talent in an extremely competitive market. Your communication with the candidate should be timely, and interview feedback should be shared as quickly as possible. When a candidate waits several days or weeks for feedback regarding next steps in the process, their interest is likely to diminish, and it might be challenging to pique their interest to the previous level.

Keep searching

Even though you found the perfect candidate, it’s important to keep searching. Life happens, and you never know what might come up that could take your perfect candidate out of the running. Keep your foot on the gas pedal and ensure other candidates are moving through the interview process as well. The worst-case scenario? You’ll have a slate of back-up candidates if you need them.