When recruiting new staff, clients often get hung up on ticking every box on their wish list and finding 'the perfect candidate', but that isn’t always possible and compromise is often needed. Many companies miss out on their dream candidate due to one criteria not being met despite the individual being almost perfect for the role. 

Here we look at common reasons why a client may turn a candidate away and what considerations can be made instead. 

• Overemphasis on Specific Experience: 

    Employers often require direct industry experience or specific roles in a candidate's background. This can exclude candidates with relevant skills from other industries or transferable expertise, even if they’d be a great fit.

Our recommendation: Consider a candidate's overall experience rather than focusing purely on specific experience. You may find a highly skilled candidate in one sector, and those skills are transferable to your sector. Or you may find someone who has skills in a similar software to the one you use but can quickly pick up the software that you require them to use. 

• Strict Focus on Qualifications: 

  While degrees and certifications are important, employers may prioritise them over practical skills or hands-on experience. This can lead to turning away talented candidates who lack formal qualifications but have exceptional skills and proven results. If a job title is protected, there are other titles you can give them that fit the role but don’t go against the law.
  
  Our recommendation: Many industries can have skilled workers who have years of experience without the qualifications. We recommend focusing on what their experience is and not so much on what their qualifications are on paper. Someone could have the highest level of qualification but not be as skilled as the next candidate who doesn’t have the qualifications. 
   

• Relying Heavily on Cultural Fit: 

  Hiring solely for cultural fit can unintentionally filter out strong candidates who bring fresh perspectives or diverse experiences. While cultural fit is valuable and important, focusing too much on it can lead to a homogenous team and missed growth opportunities.
  
  Our recommendation: Cultural fit is important, but having someone who fits in with the team but can’t provide the work is not going to benefit your business. Focus on the “must-haves” and then consider whether or not they fit your company culture. 
   

• Red Flags from Job Gaps or Short Tenures: 

  Some employers see job gaps or frequent moves as signs of instability, even though they’re often due to valid reasons like layoffs, personal development, or career pivots. Employers may overlook adaptable, capable professionals when dismissing candidates over these points.
  
  Our recommendation: We appreciate why job hopping can look bad on a CV and why this may ring alarm bells for you, but often this is due to redundancies or the job not living up to expectations. We often hear from candidates that shortly after joining a company, it becomes apparent that it’s not the job they were led to believe it was. - This then results in a very short tenure before job searching again. 
   

• Overly Long Hiring Process: 

  A drawn-out hiring process with multiple rounds and delays can drive strong candidates away. High-potential candidates usually interview elsewhere, and a protracted timeline may result in them accepting other offers.

   Our recommendation: While planning your recruitment strategy, consider timeframes and how long it will realistically take you for each part of the process so that you can share this with your recruiter to manage the candidate's expectations. From receiving a CV, you should ideally get back to your recruiter within a couple of days at the very most, but ideally as soon as you possibly can. The reason for this comes down to the candidate's availability, and if they’re a high-quality candidate, the chances are that they’re going to get snapped up quickly by other companies. A similar rule applies to the timing of the interview after interviewing the candidate. Share your timeframes and procedures with the candidate at the interview to transparently set expectations, and then stick to those timings. Follow our tips to avoid the recruitment process fizzling out to keep your candidate engaged and interested. 

• Overemphasis on Technical Skills over Soft Skills: 

  Employers can be too focused on specific technical skills, ignoring the importance of soft skills like communication, adaptability, and problem-solving. Often, these abilities are critical to a candidate’s success in the role.
  
  Our recommendation: Similar to our earlier points above, it’s important not to focus too much on certain skills. If a candidate is technically very skilled but has no communication skills, you may struggle to work with them on projects involving teamwork. You need to find a happy medium of different skills to get the right balance if you plan to hire someone for the long haul. 
   

• Unconscious Bias: 

  Implicit biases, whether related to age, background, or appearance, can impact hiring decisions. This bias can lead to missing out on well-suited candidates who don’t fit a narrow perception of the “ideal” hire. 

  Our recommendation: It’s incredibly important to avoid discrimination, so it’s imperative you focus on being diverse in your hiring process and inclusive of everyone. Remember that age, ethnicity, gender etc make no difference to someone’s capability to do a good job (If anything, someone of an older age will have enhanced work and life experience!)
   

• Inflexibility with Salary and Benefits: 

  Sometimes, employers lose perfect candidates by offering a package that doesn’t match their expectations or current market standards. Top candidates may decline offers or go elsewhere if compensation and benefits are too rigid.
  
  Our recommendation: If you want top-quality candidates, you need to offer a top-quality package (or at least the market rate plus inviting benefits). A huge portion of high-calibre candidates are passive (approximately 70%!) and as an employer, you need to offer them something extraordinary in order to get them to leave their current job, and offering them a basic salary and zero benefits is not going to entice them to join you. You can find out more about the difference between active and passive candidates and how we can help as your recruiter on our blog.
   

By adjusting hiring practices to focus on a more holistic view of a candidate's skills, potential, and adaptability, employers can avoid overlooking candidates who could excel in their organisation.

If you’re looking to employ your next member of the team, get in touch with our recruitment experts and they will be happy to help.