The hunt is on: finding hidden values when sourcing candidates

By Mary Helen Gillespie, 5/22/2006

Today's global economy requires one thing from each and every participant: a personal passion for excellence that is reflected in professional competence.

Which is a fancy way of saying that when hiring, managers need to look beyond the candidate's resume and find the hidden value of his or her potential contribution to the organization.

Example: There is an opening at Acme Inc. for a director of widgets. Are the only candidates considered for the position ones with 10 years of widget experience? Or would a candidate with 10 years of experience hunting wabbits who now wishes to widget as a mid-career professional be welcomed as well? Answer: It depends.

So often when hiring, we utter the mantra: "Must be a good fit with rest of team." Fine, but we all know that "good fit" is code for: Plays nice with others. Well, playing nice is not the same as working together. Team players rough it up, get a little dirty, and can still shake hands at the end of the game because they've accomplished the goals as directed. These winning results require creative, innovative methods of identifying and solving problems.

The less diverse the team is, the less likely it is going to score the big wins. That's because the individual team members will be less likely to challenge each other, to speak openly without fear of reprisal or to risk "hurting Elmer's feelings" by suggesting he is out of his cotton-picking mind, even when he truly might be.

The other issue that sidetracks managers in considering new candidates is getting stuck in the recruitment rut of filling current needs and not thinking what the organization is going to require of its workforce in the short- and long-term to compete and to grow. There is so often a rush to fill the position that the job description is posted and limited to listing the skills of the former employee or, if a new position, the skills that management sees as an immediate solution.

So when sourcing candidates, either internally or externally, managers look for the round peg for the round hole without realizing that within the next two or three quarters, the hole is going to be a bit more triangular, maybe even linear with a touch of rectangle here and there. And that circular peg just ain't up for the geometry test, if you get my drift.

Finally, because of our 24/7 business cycle, managers are so overwhelmed with day-to-day deliverables they don't have time to consider any of the above and rely on outside resources, either human or technological, to put the resumes with the key buzzwords in their email inbox by close of business the next day. Thus potential candidates with transferable skills, proven track records of success in various venues and, again, so importantly, the potential for emotional engagement get booted out of the search in the early rounds.

It's much easier to fire someone than to hire him or her. I have hired my share of duds over the years that still make me cringe when I think, "What was THAT about?"

You always remember the whack jobs first.

And then I realize the majority of the hires that I have made were really stars who came, in some cases, from other universes. But what made these candidates such great hires and fabulous employees is that fact that they were indeed, diverse, different, talented and most importantly, fun to work with.

And I don't mean fun in a ha-ha kinda way although I do cherish the memories of many a moment where I was screeching with laughter until my belly hurt. I mean fun in that these candidates came committed to our common goals, and scored a lot of hits, many home runs, and once or twice a championship. And because of their talent, I was consistently challenged to be a better manager.

Yet they were not, at first glance, what might have fit the "hole" at the time.

Thus if you want my advice, as loony as it sounds, if Acme Inc. is hiring a director of widgets, be sure to include a wabbit hunter or two in the interview process, if only to see for yourself the hidden values beyond the resumes. That's all, folks.