When you’re hiring, it’s natural to want comparisons, even after you’ve identified a strong candidate. But putting a candidate on ice can create huge risks in your recruitment process. On today’s Argentus Blog, we’re giving our advice about recruitment comparisons—and how to maximize your hiring results.

Here’s a story that’s quite common among companies looking to hire: you identify a talent gap in your organization, and develop a plan to hire for a specific set of skills. You write or update a job description. You start the search for an ideal candidate, either on your own or using an external recruitment partner. 

Candidates roll in—maybe not as many as you had initially hoped, but it is a specific skillset after all. Maybe it’s even a very difficult skillset to find. You interview a few candidates, and identify two or three individuals to progress to the next interview stage—perhaps with senior leadership. After the next interview round, you identify a candidate that you’d be prepared to move to an offer.

So far, so good. 

But before you make the candidate an offer, you want to do your due diligence. You want to make sure there aren’t any better candidates out there in the marketplace. The candidate you have is strong, but maybe there’s someone better. So you instruct either your HR department or external recruitment partner to “keep the candidate warm,” and ask for comparison profiles. 

You have a great candidate in hand, so it can’t hurt to see what else is out there, right?

Here’s where many searches enter the danger zone. 

It’s a story that we’ve seen many times—either in our own recruitment process working with companies, or in conversations with hiring managers who come to Argentus to fill a role after an offer falls apart. Here’s what happens all too often: in the time it takes to identify new candidates and run them through the process, that great candidate who you were ready to give an offer to is no longer on the market because they’ve found another opportunity. 

Then you’re back to square one. It’s a story we’ve seen all too often, so today we wanted to write a post about recruiting comparisons: when is it wise to seek out a comparison, and when should you pull the trigger with a hire?

As the proverb goes, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” This saying holds true for candidates when you’re hiring. As a hiring manager, it’s natural to want comparisons. But there are certain situations where it’s more likely to succeed than others.

So here are our rules of thumb: 

The more specialized the role, the riskier it is to seek a comparison at the eleventh hour. 

At Argentus, we recruit exclusively within Supply Chain Management and Procurement, as well as their related functions. These roles often have highly specific skillsets. These are the kind of searches where we excel. They’re satisfying because they’re hard. The right candidate is always out there—there’s a lot of great supply chain talent in Canada—but for certain roles, there are only so many candidates. Of those candidates, there are only so many in each geographic area, and only so many who are open to a new opportunity. Which means that when we submit an initial slate of candidates, we’ve often already tapped most of the market for a highly specific skillset. Great candidates may still be out there, but they become more difficult to find. 

This holds true for internal HR as well. At a certain point, you hit diminishing returns. If it’s going to take 6 weeks to find the comparison and move them through the process, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth risking the candidate you already have. 

If a role isn’t highly specialized, for example an administrative or transactional role, then it often makes sense to wait for a comparison candidate. If you know that there are many more candidates out there, or in your pipeline, then the risks are lower. 

If you do try to “keep a candidate warm” while you wait for a comparison, understand the risks

There’s an old recruitment saying: “Time kills deals.” 

The longer you leave a candidate on ice while you wait for a comparison, the less likely you are to ultimately secure that candidate. Despite a slightly cooling larger labour market, supply chain candidates remain in high demand. Many are fielding multiple offers. If the comparison candidate doesn’t materialize, or if they do and the original candidate proves to be a better fit, the time spent in the exercise can cost you the original candidate. Then you’ve wasted the time and resources to identify the original candidate and the comparison candidate. 

Then there’s the perspective of the candidate’s experience. If a candidate goes through multiple rounds of interviews, is excited about the job, and eager to take it, how does it feel from their perspective to then have to wait multiple weeks? Even if they aren’t aware that you’re seeking a comparison, they may still start to second guess the role. Waiting weeks to go from a final job interview to an offer may not send the right message. And candidates do talk to each-other about their experiences at companies. A bad hiring experience can impact your reputation. 

When you go to market to hire, you’re not just posting a job into the void. There’s a very real, defined talent base that will succeed in the job, in the right location, at the salary that you’re offering. The job of your HR or recruitment partner is to connect with that talent base and teach you about its scope, size and needs. 

So here’s our biggest piece of advice: listen to what the market is telling you. 

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At Argentus, we always provide comparisons if asked, no matter how long it takes. Our job is to be tireless advocates and comb the marketplace until our clients find the perfect candidate. But our value is also in giving our clients up-to-the-minute intel about the true shape of the marketplace. And sometimes, when we’ve combed a specific talent market, that involves advice to pull the trigger.

So if you’re looking for a recruitment partner with a true consultative approach, and have any upcoming hiring needs in Supply Chain Management, Procurement or their related areas, reach out to Argentus today! Call 416 364 9919 or send an email outlining your requirements to recruit@argentus.com.