Katherine Wiid, Recruitment, Retention and Career Management Coach advises:
There’s a saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And that’s exactly what many employers are doing when they’re hiring – they follow the same processes, use the same methods, and then wonder why they get the same outcomes.
When ‘same old, same old’ doesn’t work any more
Take a look at your job ads for example. So many businesses put out formulaic job ads asking for a set menu of skills, qualifications and experience, and then filter out any applicants who don’t tick all the boxes. This process immediately rules out lots of potential talent – people from diverse backgrounds, with different experiences – who could, with the right support and training, be perfect for the job.
Instead we end up attracting cookie-cutter candidates who are just like us, but might be completely wrong for the role. What a waste of time, money and energy!
It’s the same with the interview process. If you ask stock questions that candidates can practise answering beforehand – old classics such as ‘Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?’ and ‘What are your strengths and weaknesses?’ – what insights are you actually gaining into that person’s ability to do the job, their motivations, and how they approach their work?
Sticking to the same old recruitment methods can lead to all sorts of problems.
Let’s say your job ad asks for someone with a degree, a certain number of years’ experience, and a specific technical skill, like Python or C++. The first problem is finding enough people out there who meet all the criteria. And if there aren’t that many, they’ll be in high demand – which of course will make them a more expensive hire.
The second issue is lack of diversity. For businesses to thrive and be competitive, a diverse workforce is a must. People with different views, experiences and perspectives bring so many advantages to the workplace, including increased productivity, better problem-solving, fresh ideas, and more innovation.
And the third is that the people you attract may lack the human capabilities to be good at their job – things like being a good communicator and collaborative, creative and curious, empathetic and ethical, resilient and adaptable.
So the big question is – what if, instead of hiring people on the basis of their technical skills, or whether they have a degree or the right educational background, we paid more attention to their human capabilities? Those enduring skills that are innate and transferable. And then taught the skills specifically required for a role, on the job? Not only would we instantly widen the talent pool, but we’d increase diversity at the same time.
Keeping up with the pace
There’s another good reason for favouring human capabilities over tech/learnt skills. As new technologies continue to emerge at breakneck speed, they are transforming the way we work and the skills that businesses need.
A result is that many current workplace skills, tech skills in particular, now have a shelf life of only 2–5 years, and the number and variety of new skills that businesses need is increasing all the time. To keep pace, employees will need to frequently reskill and retrain throughout their careers, but this approach is unsustainable.
If businesses want to stay competitive they must adapt, and many are becoming switched on to the value of recruiting for human capabilities rather than from the ‘set menu’ I mentioned earlier.
A great example of a successful hire using this approach is a scaling tech company I recently worked with who needed help recruiting a support analyst.
There were three very different candidates on the shortlist. The first had all the right qualifications, but poor communication skills. The second had been doing a similar role, but lacked systems thinking and problem-solving skills. The third candidate had a recent qualification in gaming, plus eight years’ customer service experience from working in hospitality, and a passion for learning and tech.
The company hired candidate number 3 as they recognised that they had the right human capabilities to be able to learn the systems, as well as to transfer their customer skills to a commercial environment.
If you want to start making changes to the way you recruit, here are three steps to get you started:
Step 1 Challenge your assumptions
Think about the assumptions you hold about how a job should be done and what skills it requires. Then recognise that these assumptions are likely to reflect how you would do the job yourself, or how someone you know has done it in the past. To get a different view and to broaden your perspectives, ask other colleagues for their input. Or take a look at what your competitors are doing! They’ll have been experiencing the same pain, and might be doing something innovative around hiring …
Step 2 Rewrite your job adverts and interview questions
Now that you’ve questioned the way you normally do things, you can use this new knowledge to rewrite your job ads and profiles. So rather than asking for particular qualifications and tech skills, think about the human capabilities that would be more beneficial for the role.
The Language and Behavioural (LAB) Profile – a profiling tool that looks at language and patterns of behaviour to uncover what makes a person tick – is a useful way of establishing how a candidate makes decisions and needs to be motivated to do the job. This information can then be used to write job ads and job profiles, and to form the basis of questions in interviews.
Step 3 Dig a little deeper
At interview, focus less on the candidate’s CV and instead ask questions to find out more about the life experiences, interests, talents and personal attributes they could bring to the role. This will also help you to identify any strengths they have that might not be on their CV.
If you want different results, you need to do things differently. And that’s where I can help.
Before you get the ball rolling, I’ll work with you to identify the human capabilities needed for the role (rather than focusing on qualifications, experience and skills). I’ll help you to determine what the person will be doing in that role, and how they need to interact and approach their work and create a well rounded job profile. Reassessing what you’re looking for before you place your job ad will save you time, money and a good deal of frustration further down the line!
