Recruiting from "outside the box"

Before Colonel Sanders founded KFC, he worked a number of jobs including as a railway labourer and gas station operator. Before he found fame in Hollywood, Harrison Ford was a carpenter. Before becoming the 40th President of the United States of America, Ronald Reagan was of course an actor.

There are hundreds of examples of people who have successfully transitioned from one industry or role to another, often exchanging a mediocre career for fame, fortune and success as they leverage their previously tapped or untapped skills, experience, knowledge and interests.

So why do companies make it so hard for people to do this?

More often than not, the clients I support want to recruit someone currently working for a company in the same sector and of a parallel profile, who possesses a track record in a comparable role, who has previously managed budgets and a team of a similar size, and who is of the same cultural outlook. In other words, they want to appoint someone the same as the previous incumbent.

But might someone of a slightly different profile be even better? Maybe a person’s transferable skills would lead to innovation and solutions the company has never tried before? Maybe someone from another sector would have already faced and solved challenges that are only now emerging in the hiring organisation’s one? Maybe someone from a smaller business would act with greater agility while someone from a larger firm would bring better processes?

It's an essential part of any recruitment process to challenge assumptions, ask questions and consider whether searching “outside the box” might be appropriate or even beneficial. Unfortunately, it isn’t something that internal talent teams or external recruitment partners usually do, which is a real shame – just think of all the missed opportunities...

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