It’s a familiar post-interview scenario – you and your team like the candidate, but aren’t sold completely. Sure, she could likely do the job, but you want to meet other prospects for comparison. Often when confronting a difficult decision, our reaction is to put it off. Here’s how this scenario played out recently with a client of ours: The client liked the candidate, Sally. They also had Candidate B in cue, but he could not come in to interview for a week. The client’s plan was to give us feedback about Sally after they met Candidate B. Fast forward, they passed on both Sally and Candidate B. Not only were they back to the beginning with the hiring process, the client had also frustrated Sally by making her wait unnecessarily. While it’s difficult to make everyone happy, the team could have made the process less painful. How? Just ask that one question.

“Team, will we hire Sally if we aren’t impressed with Candidate B?” This is the question we encourage our clients to ask when they are on the fence about a candidate. In this case, the honest answer would have been “no” and they could have cut her loose a week earlier. Rejection always stings, but Sally would have left with a good impression of the company and had a new job with her second choice company (which was also a great opportunity). If they had answered “yes,” it would have been fair to have Sally wait as they considered her a strong contender.

If you are deep into the hiring process and aren’t sure about your candidate, ask yourself and your team that one, crucial question. It will make your candidates’ experiences with your company more positive, it will make the hiring process cleaner and it will help you get to your hiring goals faster and more efficiently.

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