You can hire purple squirrels by rewriting overly rigid job descriptions, expanding your sourcing channels, targeting niche communities, improving outreach, and screening for potential and transferable skills.
If you decide to take a stroll in the park on a sunny day, you’ll find squirrels scurrying around, doing squirrel things.
These squirrels might be red, brown, black, grey, or even white, depending on where you are.
But purple? No way!
Now imagine seeing a purple squirrel on a stroll.
That’s what finding the perfect candidate feels like to a recruiter.
The purple what now?!
That’s right.
You are still on the correct page.
This recruitment jargon describes a unique candidate that is great for a specific job – matching the qualifications, from education to skill sets to experience.
These candidates are as used to their jobs as squirrels are to their natural habitat.
If the perfect acorn or opportunity presents itself, they would be willing to change their surroundings if anything piqued their attention.
What makes purple squirrels so special?
Purple squirrels have distinct qualifications and characteristics that make them a great fit for a certain role.
Such people are in great demand in the contemporary economy for a variety of reasons, including–
- Superior Innovation: Purple squirrels have the vision and expertise to create game-changing solutions in your sector. If you want to outperform your competition, the appropriate applicant can bring the fresh perspectives you need to design your client’s future.
- Financial Capacity: Highly skilled individuals provide superior performance, increased production, and a stronger influence. This ideal applicant is worth much more than an ordinary employee in terms of performance value.
- Employer Branding: Hiring great candidates may increase the attractiveness of your client to other top performers. Over time, the proper recruits contribute to developing a corporate culture recognized for innovation and thought leadership in the industry.
What do purple squirrels like?
Squirrels love acorns! They want these in order to feel secure and satisfied.
So, in recruitment terms, these are the qualities candidates want in a company:
- Salary and benefits
- Exciting work and responsibilities
- Captivating leaders
- Ideal workplace atmosphere
- Company principles and culture
- Career advancement
How to attract purple squirrels?
Now that you know what to change about your recruiting process, it’s time to enhance your recruitment strategy to attract top talent effectively.
Here are a few examples–
1. Increase the number of channels to post job ads
Post your job openings through a variety of channels. This will quickly raise awareness of your listing, increasing your chances of attracting purple squirrels.
These can be general ones like Google for Jobs, Indeed, Glassdoor, and so on, or more specialized ones like Behance or Medzilla.
You may also take advantage of social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram.
2. Improve the careers page
Your client’s careers page is important. There are only a few things to keep in mind.
First, make sure that it communicates your client’s corporate culture with the rest of the globe so that people understand what their brand stands for.
Second, give an appealing description that will make them go, “Wow! “This job sounds fantastic!” or “This company sounds amazing!”
Third, make it search-engine friendly.
The latter will increase the chances of your careers page appearing first on search results. Given the wealth of knowledge available online, this will be tremendously beneficial.
3. Focus on candidate evaluations
This will be an additional step in the hiring procedure.
It ensures that applications are correctly vetted and that you receive the applicants you are looking for.
If you are looking for a top-tier IT professional, give them a coding test to see how they do.
Purple squirrels are stunning on paper, but they are much more impressive in motion.
4. Ensure a positive candidate experience
An application is bidirectional.
Let’s assume you discovered a purple squirrel.
They should (without any doubt) like you just as you like them.
When communicating, make them feel welcome in a real way. Despite your hectic schedule, prospects would appreciate if you provided them with effective feedback.
Don’t leave them hanging or waiting throughout the application process. Delivering a positive candidate experience is highly essential for any recruitment agency.
5. Hire remotely
Don’t limit yourself to a single geographical location.
The pandemic shows that recruiters can find qualified individuals regardless of location. Additionally, with candidate esignature solutions, recruiters can also sign contracts with new hires remotely.
Purple squirrels may be found thousands of miles away, so if the necessity arises, you should explore them extensively.
You never know. There might be hidden treasures in unexpected places!
You’ll be astonished at how many advantages this has. It encourages diversity and inclusiveness, which boosts your client’s workplace branding tremendously.
6. Understand the difference between ‘must-have skills’ and ‘nice-to-have skills’
Last but not least, be practical and limit your criteria to only must-have talents.
Recruiters are frequently taken aback by new talent and lose sight of their primary requirements.
This might result in already-good-enough applicants slipping through your fingers just because you’re seeking “additional skills.”
Purple squirrels can be too good to be true at times.
You can wind up wasting time and money if you spend too much time looking for one.
The recruiting market is constantly evolving; therefore, focusing on a single applicant’s quality might hinder progress.
Rivalry in some businesses may be intense. You must be prepared to bargain convincingly, particularly about remuneration. Set a reasonable budget for this.
Finally, don’t simply accept what you see on paper or on assessments.
You may become so preoccupied with a concrete checklist that you ignore essential details.
Recruiters should consider culture fit, team cohesion, and many other factors before deciding to close the position.
Blog summary
Purple squirrels are rare candidates who perfectly match a long list of skills, experience, and personality traits, making them extremely hard to find with traditional hiring methods.
The blog explains that recruiters often create this problem themselves by writing unrealistic job descriptions, expecting one candidate to cover multiple roles, or relying on narrow sourcing channels.
To hire purple squirrels, the blog suggests rewriting rigid job posts to focus on true must-haves, expanding sourcing into niche communities, employee networks, and specialized platforms, and using personalized outreach to stand out.
It highlights the importance of skill-based hiring, where recruiters evaluate capability, potential, and transferable experience rather than focusing on a perfect resume.
The blog also recommends using technology such as AI matching, automation, and data insights to identify hidden-fit candidates faster. Streamlining interviews, improving candidate experience, and setting clear expectations help reduce drop-offs.
Finally, maintaining long-term relationships, creating a flexible hiring path, and keeping communication transparent increase the chances of landing rare, high-value candidates.
