Beware Hiring ClonesIt’s long past overdue to change the way you recruit talent. The way you’ve been doing it is wrong, and it is hurting your business.

This topic is particularly relevant now, because there is a goldmine of talent on the street in this lousy economy.  Your opportunity to strengthen your firm with hungry, motivated and powerful people will never be better.

Don’t muck it up by using the same tired old tactics for filling your critical and precious few opportunities.

Specifically, I’m concerned about the propensity that we have as leaders to hire clones. This manifests itself in one of several ways:

  • Organizations hire from within their industry in a never-ending game of musical chairs.  The people stay the same, but the business cards change.
  • Managers specify MUST HAVE requirements for experience, that guarantee that the game of musical chairs continues merrily along. Visit a job board and read the ridiculously detailed experience requirements that become the filters that recruiters and HR gatekeepers use to screen candidates.
  • Many search firms and consultants lack the creativity and fortitude to challenge clients on hiring clones. They execute on a search to the “Must Have” requirements, blindly assuming the client knows best.  While they may execute the transaction effectively, these service providers have not cracked the code of how to add value to a client. (This problem however, does not start with the recruiter, it starts with the hiring managers and their false belief that only someone with a very specific set of experiences is worth considering.)
  • Talent Development is still an oxymoron in many firms. The words are uttered, the courses are scheduled, but the underpinnings of a culture committed to finding and developing the best people and the best talent are lacking.

I’ve practiced what I’m preaching here, and I’ve experienced the pitfalls, but mostly enjoyed the benefits, as my firms became market leaders.  It takes courage to hire based on your read of the raw talent…your perception of the business and the people acumen of an individual, versus hiring based on the fact that this person has done this same job in the same industry.

Why do you want to continue retreading the same worn-out industry ideas by hiring exclusively from within your market?

It takes commitment to truly developing talent when you hire for skills and gifts and potential, not for comfort.  Effective leaders understand that hiring outside the industry will elongate the ramp-up process and create more work at start-up.

However, the first time your out-of-the-industry hire looks at you and your team in a meeting and says, “Have you considered doing it this way?” you will smile knowing that the process of cross-pollination has started.  The payback from the up-front investment has potential to be tremendous.

With the exception of very specialized, knowledge or contact-intensive roles, most positions can be filled and learned by a smart person.

What’s so special about your industry or market that only people that have worked in it are capable of working in it going forward? Absolutely nothing.

I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret. There are very few differences between industries.  The problems at a high level are all the same.  The people are different, and there are unique variables, but someone who has lived across multiple markets recognizes the patterns in a hurry.  And this someone has also lived through and seen complex problems solved in different ways.  These experiences are priceless to you.

Occasionally, one of your attempts to hire a decathlete will fail.  It’s painful, and if this happens a lot, you’ve got other problems.  Some people are lousy judges of talent.

The Bottom-Line for Now

I’ll take the potential benefits that accrue over time from assembling the smartest, most capable and gifted group of individuals, regardless of background, versus settling for the mediocre to poor outcome from industry inbreeding.

Screw up some courage and expand your search parameters and get prepared to do your job as a leader in developing talent.  You might just end up with a powerful, creative and motivated team prepared to challenge conventional industry thinking while creating value for customers and thumping competitors.