Santa is amazing.  You have to admit it.  No one works harder and longer hours than Santa.  Really, how does he do it?  He gets all those toys to all the boys and girls all over the world in one day?  He prepares all year for one moment in time.  Now that is a true feat!  

Santa is smart though!  He can't do it alone.  Now, that would be impossible!  He has to have elves to help him.  He delegates, has all of them work overtime.  Still, Santa is just one man.  That is a lot of pressure for one person.  He is ultimately the one person responsible for the delivery of the toys, not the elves. I don't know if I know of another human being that has the skills of Santa.  Does the man ever sleep?

As recruiters, we look for the Santa Clause candidate.  The person who does it all, never gets tired and loves his job so much that he is willing to dedicate his life to doing the same thing with the same company.  People say they can do it, but they can't.  It is impossible. We still look for the Santa candidate though.  Why?  We expect them to throw on the red hat and put it in overdrive at all times.  That is not fair to the candidates.

Instead of hiring Santa, maybe we should look for the right team that can do the job more effectively by working than one individual.  Santa has the right idea with the elves, but we need to take it a step further and build a team of Santa's.  After all, if Santa got paid, how much would he get paid?  We would ultimately be paying a ton of money to one person and setting them up for failure, and also the company for failure.  It can't be done!  

Think about Alex Rodriguez and when he was paid $250 million to be the Texas Rangers savior.  It nearly bankrupt the team and everybody including Alex was disgruntled.  The Yankees are STILL paying for that bad decision.  It isn't Alex Rodriguez's problem as much as it was a dumb decision by the Rangers and Yankees to expect that of him.

As a recruiter, my goal is to hire the best talent and team to get the job done.  Let's stop looking for the superhero and start looking for the team of superheroes. After all, we don't want to ask the impossible from a candidate.  

That is why there is only ONE Santa Clause!

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