What is Purple Squirrel?
Purple Squirrel is a term used in Human Resource management that refers to a job candidate who perfectly fits all the job requirements, for example, in terms of education, experience, skills, etc. It means an ideal candidate for any specific job role who perfectly fits all the criteria required for the role. Human resource managers use it sarcastically to highlight how challenging it is to find the ideal applicant for a position. Finding a purple squirrel can be challenging, so it is believed that they are incredibly rare and valuable. In this article, we will look for some tips for finding a purple squirrel, its benefits, and its challenges in an organisation.
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How do you find a Purple Squirrel?
Following are some ways to find a purple squirrel-like candidate for a job role:
1. Build Reputation: As we understand, a purple squirrel means a candidate who is highly qualified for a job role. Generally, highly qualified employees love to work in an organization that has a good reputation. So, you have to establish your company as the most trustworthy and credible one in the industry. Show your company’s commitment to hiring top-tier talent and participate in industry discussions to increase visibility. If you consistently demonstrate your commitment to seeking and valuing exceptional talent, you will build a reputation as a place where all purple squirrels work, which will attract more unique talented individuals.
2. Offer Competitive Compensation: Purple squirrels love to work at premium rates, which are more than the average wages of employees. Providing an attractive salary to top-tier talent is like you are saying, “We value your amazing skills, and we’re willing to make it worth your while to work with us.” Along with salary, you can offer flexible working schedules and a positive work culture. These will make your company favourable for them to work.
3. Expand your sourcing channels: If you increase your sourcing channels from where you get candidates for assessment, then the chances of finding a purple squirrel will also increase. You can use multiple ways to get candidates like you can advertising for vacancies on Google, other social media sites, your business website, job boards, referrals, etc. You can also use recruitment agencies to get employees with specific unique qualities.
4. Invest in Training and Development: If you are not able to find a perfect employee in terms of everything, then consider those employees who have good skills, and qualifications, and are near to perfect, then understand their potential and invest in training and development programs for their growth and shine. In this way, you can help those employees in reaching their full potential and be the employee you are looking for.
5. Winners from Challenges: If you are looking for perfect candidates in a specific skill, then you could look for the winners of contests, challenges, and hackathons. These are the events where the most passionate individuals participate, and winners are assumed to have the best problem-solving skills or potential for innovation. You can prioritize a group of qualified candidates who have proven their skills in multiple competitive and collaborative environments.
Benefits of having a Purple Squirrel
1. Competitive Edge: Purple Squirrel will make you one step ahead of your competitors. As they have exceptionally good skills and way of thinking, which will make you ahead in terms of quality, solving problems, and delivering results. It may also help in immediately adapting to customer needs. The specialized skills may help in getting ahead in difficult things, and others lack expertise in them.
2. Leadership Potential: Because of their expertise in skills Purple Squirrels could be best placed in a leadership position in the company. By being a leader, they can help by boosting the confidence and motivation of all team members. They can also share their knowledge and skills with other employees, which can help in their growth and development. In this way, they can guide their team and organization towards success.
3. Brand Image: Having purple squirrels means having a super talented and unique workforce. Their extraordinary skills will bring out the qualities, which will help the company to stand out from others. Customers may feel your company have a team of experts, who are good at what they do. This will build a positive image of your company and also attract other super-talented people to the company. In this way, Purple Squirrel will boost the company’s image.
4. Lower recruitment and training costs: For a perfect-fit employee, you need not spend money on learning and learning. Because they have good knowledge of what they are hired for, so they do not need much training for that. They will need minimal supervision and save resources and time for the company.
5. Knowledge Transfer: As we have understood, purple squirrels are very important for the company because of their exceptional skill and knowledge. This knowledge can be transferred between all the employees of the company when the purple squirrel joins the company. Thus, it helps not only with his skills and knowledge but also by creating a knowledgeable team. It will contribute to the overall growth and development of the company.
Challenges in Hiring Purple Squirrels
1. Time-Consuming Search: As purple squirrels are very rare and are the top talent in the industry, so it’s very challenging to find them. It is also very time-consuming. Companies have to use various sources and multiple channels for a long time to get them. This time-consuming search will cause delays in hiring, which will impact the company’s business processes. Companies also need proper assessment and evaluation for finding these employees, which also, includes multiple processes and increases time delay.
2. High Demand and Competition: Purple squirrel-like employees have a very high demand in the market, and also they are very less in number. So, companies have to face high competition in hiring such perfect and skilled employees in their company. It may lead to bidding wars. Pursuing them will take a lot of effort and financial investment.
3. Unrealistic compensation demands: They are high in demand, so they will ask for more compensation benefits as compared to the average employees of the company. They will also have more bargaining power as compared to other employees. Meeting the salary requirements of Purple Squirrels will cause problems in maintaining a budget for the company. Resource allocation should be done when looking for purple squirrels.
4. Retention Concerns: If the company have somehow hired Purple Squirrel, still there will be no guarantee of retention due to their high demands in the market. They may have big ambitions and will seek opportunities elsewhere. They may be chased by competitors who may offer better incentives.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is looking for a purple squirrel a cost-effective option for the company?
Answer: It may be costly when looking for the purple squirrel, as they have to offer high compensation, benefits, and a good working environment, but it is believed that having a uniquely skilled individual justifies the investment.
2. What are the alternatives of purple squirrel for the companies who cannot afford purple squirrel?
Answer: Yes, they can upskill their existing workforce internally through training programs, continuous learning, retaining good employees, mentorship programs, etc. Also, they can do hiring based on employees’ skills.
3. Why is it called a purple squirrel?
Answer: Purple squirrel word describes a candidate who is rare to find and has unique skills like it is very uncommon to find a purple squirrel in the real world.
4. How can candidates become purple squirrels?
Answer: Candidates can become purple squirrels by excelling in the skills, which are in very high demand in the market but have a low supply. They have to practice a lot to develop their expertise in unique and highly demanded skills.
5. What role does technology play in finding purple squirrels?
Answer: Technology plays an important role by streamlining the process of identifying the potential purple squirrels by using artificial intelligence, and analysing their data. They use algorithms which provide the rank of candidates according to their skills. Also, social media are used for finding candidates.