Hiring philosophies differ widely depending on a company’s market sector, geographic area, and financial stability. A well-established firm with a flexible hiring budget located in a remote area may be able to shoulder more risk during the talent acquisition process than a smaller firm in a busy metropolitan area with a shoe string budget.

But the central question underlying all hiring strategies is basically the same: When a potentially valuable person comes within reach, should you make a move and sign her on, or would you be wiser to let her go? Should you wait until you’re desperate for a specific skill set and then sift through a pile of candidates searching for perfection? Or should you grab talent when you see it and worry about the specifics later?

Position Hiring: Pros and Cons

Position hiring means waiting to hire until you really, really need someone, and then making sure that your candidate has skill sets and competencies that precisely match your open position. If your hiring philosophy is lean and mean, just-in-time hiring can save budget resources. So can a search focused on perfectly tailored skills sets. If you’ll be paying for a candidate who can do one thing well, why shell out for an additional list of glowing character traits that have no obvious application for your firm?

At the same time, finding a candidate who can be trained and shaped to meet your company’s needs, no matter how precise your application process, will still involve a roll of the dice. Just because she’s fluent with a specific software module doesn’t mean she’ll work well with your existing staff. And if you wait too long to hire, or let great-but-not-perfect candidates slip away, your fear of risk might expose you to another kind of risk altogether.

High Potential Candidates: Pros and Cons

While position hiring means taking on a candidate and hoping she’ll grow perfectly into your existing position, high-potential-candidate hiring means taking on a smart, ambitious, adaptable person, and hoping she’ll find her own way to move the company forward.

High potential candidate hiring mitigates one form of risk: you know you’re signing on a great mind, and you know you’re keeping her out of the reach of your competitors. But it incurs another form: You’ll be paying a high price for an unknown grab bag of potential brilliance that may not actually resolve itself into any specific area of value. Most companies don’t make money when too many employees are walking around the office, no matter how brilliant they are.

But some do. And if you’re one of those, don’t let an ambitious, personable genius get away just because you aren’t quite ready for her yet.

For more talent management advice and additional help with your hiring strategy, contact Expert Staffing, your Houston, TX staffing specialists.