You think you've found the perfect candidate for your open position. There is excitement and a world of possibilities as you both venture down this new road of doing great things together.
"I never thought I could find the perfect person!"
"You are everything I could have hoped for!"
"You are everything I could have hoped for!"
And then something happens.
"Well, maybe you're not everything I was looking for."
"Are you even listening to me?"
"I think we need to end this."
"Are you even listening to me?"
"I think we need to end this."
Like relationships, the phases of enchantment are the same. You have an interview and everyone is dressed up and on his or her best behavior. At the beginning, everyone is ready to move forward and the thrill of something new creates an emotional charge.
But then that honeymoon period is over. You discover that the person that you thought was perfect has major weaknesses after all or maybe they just conned you that they were so awesome. Best behavior is now over and this person is late or disrespectful or needy or has some quirky little thing that now is making you crazy and sorry you ever brought them onboard. But, again like relationships, getting out of them can be a lot trickier than getting into them. So what to do?
Sometimes before committing to a candidate, you can try before you buy. When a position becomes open most managers still immediately think of conducting a standard, in-house job search, yet today's staffing and recruiting companies can spare their clients the hassle of a search as well as the pain of a poor fit that needs to be undone.
The process is usually very straightforward. You describe your ideal candidate and the staffing firm sends individuals you can "date" for a while and see if you want to commit. If you do, they facilitate that, and if you want to try someone else, they arrange that too.
What makes it easy is that if this person turns out to not be "the one," you can have the staffing company handle the break up and you are not out the costs of hiring and firing someone. So instead of heartbreak and "You're fired," the candidate could hear, "I think we need to end this. But we may have another opportunity for you somewhere else!" When it comes to filling your next open position, consider the benefits of having a staffing firm help you "try before you buy" to make sure what seems like a great fit at first truly is.
