The Unicorn Dilemma: Hire for Talent, Not Perfection

What kind of domino effect can that create, both in the hiring process and within the organization?

You know, it's not just a domino effect, it's also a ripple effect, in a, in not the best way.

Hmm.

Where I came up with the unicorn dilemma is when you have the hiring manager saying, "They need to have three to five years experience.

They need to do this, they need to do that," it's, it's just that perfection.

And then when, when they say they want three to five years experience, you go, "Well, how about if we get a candidate with two and a half?" And they go, "Okay, that'll work." "Can we go down to two?" "Yeah, that'll work." "Okay, why do we have the requirement?" You know? It's let's be real about the conversation.

And I literally, I do not recommend you go back to your work and do this, I literally would go into these intake meetings with a stuffed unicorn and say, "This is the only one you're gonna get.

Let's talk reality."

[laughs]

Because I understand their pressures.

They need to get it done.

Their KPIs and balanced scorecard is all depending on us getting the right people in.

But the unicorn doesn't exist, and so we have to look at different ways of finding the right talent for them.

So I call it unmute the intake.

So let's, uh, come out to our audience, um, for a second here.

How many of you feel like you have personally faced that unicorn dilemma, whether you were the one applying for the role or the one h- trying to hire or create the role? Oh.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of hands.

Like, majority of the audience there.

You know, what, what does, what does that say, like, you know, when you see all those hands up like that?

It says it's a real problem that's never been labeled, and that we try to explain to the hiring manager, and they have us on mute, and we're trying to find the better way to explain to them what we need to do in today's world.

Because a lot of us are looking for that talent, but truly, we're looking for that talent that wants to work.

And what we're running into is people that are like, "Eh, you know, maybe I'll come, maybe I won't.

I'll do this, I'll do that." We're, we're in a different society right now, and we're, we have a different applicant, and we need to keep up with that.

And like you said, it creates that ripple effect, not so much in the best way.