The Effective Hiring Manager

24How to Handle Two Viable Candidates

What do we do with two viable candidates? When we’ve found two candidates that we’d be willing to hire, both of whom are “above the bar,” how do we handle the candidates?

Communicate Personally and Directly with Both Candidates

As hiring managers we have to be the one who communicates with candidates at this point. Too many managers outsource part of their communications with offerees/candidates. We communicate with the top candidate, and then we don’t communicate with HR regularly about the status of the second candidate, allowing there to be a gap in our knowledge of the situation.

The process of offering and closing ought not be outsourced. The efficiency value of allowing others to communicate is far outweighed by the loss of effectiveness when we’re not the ones doing the communicating. HR will never understand your needs, or your timing, as fully as you do. And they will always add more time to the process. Increased time with decreased value makes little sense.

Don’t allow someone else to have a conversation and then either (a) not tell you about it or (b) characterize it for you. This characterization will lack some of the subtlety that you will be able to hear because no one else understands your situation or the candidate as completely as you do.

We talk to all candidates. If we reject someone, we tell him so. If a candidate is still pending, we tell her so. If a candidate has questions, we’re happy to take those calls. What ...