recruitment
Selecting for shared experiences and similar
personalities may come at the expense of
new skills, fresh ideas and future potential.
If we want to take an organization from static
and morose to energetic and efficient, we need to
hire people that don’t fit the current mold. As an example,
a CEO had to choose between three corporate
trainers that presented RFPs based on the company’s five-year
plan. One of the candidates mentioned that she was a fundraiser
for a charity the CEO supported, and that was it. He decided –
based on that commonality – that she would be a great fit. Come
training time, she did not deliver and failed to connect with the
audience.
How about the role of technology in the recruitment process
– is it working for us or against us? Output can only be as good
as input. If we feed terms like energy, passion and innovation into
an Applicant Testing Service (ATS), we’ll get resumes with those
words. When we present the hiring manger
with six dynamic superheroes, chances are they
won’t be considered a fit. This is where an ATS
stops being of any value at all, as these only look
at resume fit.
Regardless of how much effort we make, no recruitment
process will ever be fail-safe. You will only
know whether you’ve made the right decision once a new hire is
actually in the job, as this is the stage where skills, abilities and character
match with the new environment and values are put to the test.
It is crucial to begin a recruitment process by defining the job we
want to fill, the difference the position should make for the company
and which experience, skills and abilities will help the company
achieve its goals. n
Evert Akkerman is an award-winning HR professional based out of
Newmarket, Ont.
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36 ❚ JANUARY 2016 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL