New Candidate Profiles for a New Economy
Gone are the days of valuing consistency over entrepreneurial spirit. Today's companies learn to manage the delicate balance by hiring employees who, regardless of their position, are infused with the ideals of entrepreneurship.
As recruiters, we have been accomplished stewards of our company's culture. It has been an easy task to quickly ascertain, through skillful interviewing, whether a candidate presents as a skill set and cultural chemistry "fit" for the organization. In the past (which may be as recent as 2008) desirable candidate attributes sounded like a laundry list of consistent behaviors that assured 1) the candidate's ability to succeed as a team player, and 2) that the candidate did not make wave while doing so.
Enter the economic crisis of 2009, and the criteria for hiring once viewed by recruiters as effortless have vastly changed. The pre-layoff staffing patterns of organizations have been drastically altered. In these de-layered organizational models, we find certain characteristics that mark a warning for those of us charged with casting the net for the company's future human capital. Organizations emerge as leaner, under more scrutiny, and more accountable for shareholder (and in some cases, government) value, all while charged with out-performing the competition if they are to survive. These mandates come at a time when management and front line employees are reeling from cutbacks and the change in the way business needs to be conducted going forward.
Consistency hiring outdated
To move beyond the cubicle culture so pervasive in today's large companies, it is important to realize that senior managements' past hiring practices may very well have led to the level of rampant employee disengagement we see today. By hiring to a profile of consistency, corporations ensured a compliant employee base, who in reality is detached from the broader business issues of the organization. The resultant loss of productivity is tragic, and has led to the downfall of far too many companies and jobs across the nation.
A hunkered down employee in a cubicle is not the face of corporate America any longer. Candidates must be hired to a profile that reflects the needs of the New Economy.
To be successful, corporations must recognize the need to balance consistency with the need for entrepreneurial spirit as a marker of the culture they are hiring into.
Hiring for the new entrepreneurialism
How to bring about the change? Recruiters are starting along the path by stopping in at the corner office. To bring about change, senior management must articulate the needs of the organization going forward, and set a behaviorally based mandate for performance that can be executed at every level of the organization. A frank discussion of employee behaviors needed for success, and the old school behaviors that will surely cause failure is critical to establish the KSA's and cultural fit standards for the recruiting professional to use in sourcing candidates.
Creating a hiring profile against these new entrepreneurial ways of doing business will require candidates with new skill sets. They must be able to:
Deal with uncertainty: Corporate employees have generally functioned well in structured environments. This New Economy will present uncertain situations, lack of defined path, and the need for level headed thinking, even when situations do not go as planned.
Comfortably handle elements of risk: We know that corporate employees have traded elements of personal freedom for the relative security of direct deposit and clear cut task oriented job description. Employees going forward will need to be far less risk-averse and see risk as opportunity vs. threat.
Be aware of the need for urgency: Gone is the era of "Wait three days to see if anyone notices, then act." Employees who are fully engaged are connected with the need to move and move quickly if they are to contribute to the success of the company. In return, employers will need to find new reward and recognition programs that ensure the continuation of these entrepreneurial initiatives.
Deal with less than ideal conditions: The days of glossy offices, over the top perks, status symbols that came with the title, are falling by the wayside. Surroundings will not be as important as the next round of funding, or the newest account, or a team who works seamlessly to achieve success.
Work out of title: Employees who can leap from one area to another, in response to the needs of the organization will be in demand and therefore, highly mobile. Cross training, involvement across company through information flow will be critical to manage this new opportunity to leapfrog across the company to achieve organizational and individual goals.
Visualize the future, and work towards it: Entrepreneurs can see the future, although intangible at the outset, and work to build an organization that can support the vision. Employees who are infused with that vision, and see the business through the eyes of company and its customers, will be successful.
Recruiters play a vital role in leading senior management to embrace the need for a seismic entrepreneurial shift in hiring strategy for New Economy jobs. Will it be easy to go beyond appearances and truly change the mindset of an organization? Like everything else, it will be a process. But it is one that will have to occur for American businesses to regain their foothold on growth and stability in the future.
Article by, Barbara Poole and courtesy of Kenndy Information Recruiting Trends providing leading edge insights and strategies for the recruiting professional
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