How to recruit a purple squirrel (and other hard-to-find creatures) - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Viewpoint careers advice blog

How to recruit a purple squirrel (and other hard-to-find creatures) - Viewpoint - careers advice blog For those not familiar with the term, a purple squirrel is a term used in recruitment to describe a candidate that is near impossible to find. It is someone who has a set of niche skills, experience and background to do a specific role. To put it in human terms, we were recently asked by a client to find a nuclear physicist who spoke French for a short-term assignment in a specific Eastern European country. As you can imagine, our short list was pretty short! So if you are being asked to find a purple squirrel, what should you do? Follow these 5 simple steps: 1. Reassess which attributes are essential By drilling down into the requirements of the role, you can ascertain exactly what skills and expertise are absolutely necessary in your new recruit and what can be learned/trained on the job. For example, you can teach someone how to use an unfamiliar email marketing platform if they’re already digitally savvy with exposure to other similar platforms. Similarly, just because somebody hasn’t worked abroad before, doesn’t mean they won’t adapt to a new environment. Somebody might not have that specified degree, but their professional success could speak volumes about their ability. Steve Jobs was famously rejected by HP, simply because he didn’t have a college education. I think we can all agree that HP are regretting passing up that particular candidate! 2. Research the market Once you have the essential criteria for your purple squirrel, it will be easier to start your search. Some simple market research to gather intelligence will help. Firstly, establish how many purple squirrels actually exist. Where do they exist? If you cannot find someone locally, could you pay for someone to relocate from another country? Then consider how much they are looking for to work in your location or how in demand this group are. Working with a resourcing expert will help provide these insights. 3. Develop a personalised sourcing strategy Now you have pinpointed your audience and gained some valuable intelligence on them, you need to figure out your approach. Some applicants will respond to job advertisements, some will look for recommendations in community forums on social media, others will only respond to a direct approach. For example, there is no point placing an advertisement for a data scientist in a local newspaper and expecting any response. There are so few data scientists and they are in such demand that the sourcing strategy has to be much more finely tuned. Essentially, you need to use your knowledge of the purple squirrel market to develop a personalised sourcing strategy. Once again, a resourcing expert can recommend the best tactic. 4. Make yourself attractive Once you have reached your purple squirrel, you need to position yourselves as the employer of choice. The chances are, there will be other companies wanting to hire this unique candidate, so make sure you emphasise your Employer Brand and Value Proposition in the job criteria and throughout any on-going correspondence. Take this opportunity to highlight some attributes that other employers might miss, such as company culture, training programmes, charity efforts, social activities, flexible working and progression opportunities. The selection process is a two way street, and the candidate ultimately wants to know that they will be happy within your environment. 5. Manage stakeholder expectations After following these steps, you should be able to gauge your options, potential time to hire and overall likelihood of being able to find a purple squirrel. Make you sure you feed this back to stakeholders as they may have a different perspective! By keeping stakeholders aligned to your search, you will avoid any disagreements when it comes to actually making a final hiring decision. In summary, if you need to find a candidate with a niche set of skills, you should distil the essential criteria, work out how and where to find your target audience, make a personal approach and be truly authentic about selling your business. Following these stages will hopefully help you to secure and retain that ever elusive purple squirrel or at least someone who can do the job just as well. Want to attract the best talent? Our talent attraction tips and advice will help you attract the right people for your business 8 hiring mistakes that could cost you big Prioritising personality in your hiring process How to get the most out of psychometric testing To promote internally or to hire externally? Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em Share this blog: