Wayne Brophy
Mar 26, 2024
No Purple Unicorn? How To Spot The Perfect Candidate In Your Recruitment Search
When recruiting for a new team member, employers always seem to be looking for that perfect candidate. They seek a person with a specific set of skills, abilities, knowledge, and experience. But finding them isn’t easy.
This begs the question: Does the ideal candidate actually exist? Or are you searching for a purple unicorn? It’s like having a picture of a product you want to purchase, but you can’t locate it anywhere. The reality is that the perfect candidate doesn't exist – they’re in your mind.
So, if you can’t find your purple unicorn, what should you be looking for instead?
Consider your real requirements
First off, ask yourself what you actually need. A potentially great candidate may be almost perfect for the role, but perhaps they won’t apply because your list of ‘essential’ criteria is almost impossible to meet...
If you’re writing a job ad, consider what’s genuinely crucial and what’s simply desirable – and don’t make either list exhaustive. Get to the gist of the true skills, know-how, experience and abilities you really need and want. Endless bullet points of ‘desirable’ capabilities can be off-putting for potential applicants.
Focus on soft skills
Specific experience and qualifications aren’t as vital as they used to be. What’s much more important is soft skills like agility – this proved to be the key attribute to help businesses get through the pandemic. Personality and a positive attitude are what matters in a crisis.
Think about it: What abilities does your current team have? Perhaps some possess relevant qualifications, and of course they have the experience, but they may not align with your ‘perfect candidate’. You want people who have a learning mindset and an attitude for growth. Employees can always be trained up to meet the ‘purple unicorn’ ideal, after all. And with 38% of our surveyed connections embarking on training in the last year, there’s clearly a strong appetite for development.
Maybe you’ve found that almost perfect candidate… but there’s just one thing that you’re not on the same page about. That means you should wait until a candidate comes along who 100% agrees with what you’re offering, right? Wrong.
Not only will that slow down your search, but you may missing out on the best person for the role. If you can flex to the individual’s needs, do. It’s a candidate-short market, remember, so professionals will often be involved in several recruitment processes at any one time. Make sure you provide the best option by being open. Often, it can be things like career development, extra holidays, or training opportunities that make the difference between a candidate accepting or not.
With this in mind, it’s wise to get a general idea of #SkillsInDemand. Our Salary Benchmarking & Skills Guide 2024 covers the most in-demand skills across our specialisms of Procurement, Supply Chain, Buying & Merchandising, Logistics & Transport, Sales & HR.
