You spend weeks, even months, researching ERPs, CRMs, DBs, CMSs, and a whole slew of other IT acronyms, looking for the perfect software, languages, and platforms to send your business to the top. But hiring the right people is even more important than the tools you choose. And, according to some management experts, you might just be going about it all wrong.
The problem, according to Max McKeown, business consulting guru who specializes in innovation strategy, is that companies are too enamored of the Microsoft model for hiring employees. Microsoft is famous (or infamous) for using brainteasers to look for creative problem solvers.
But brainteasers don’t necessarily tell you which hires will be creative or innovative on the job. They really only tell you which candidates are good at taking puzzles and coming up with the sorts of answers that you’re looking for.
Bad idea. If you only hire those candidates who share your biases, you’re in danger of creating a company that may not be agile enough to innovate, which is key to keeping up with changing consumer and market tastes. You are, in fact, in danger of inbreeding.
Unfortunately, relying on resumes isn’t much better. Resumes only tell you what candidates say they know and what they’ve done. Of course you want core skills, and resumes can tell you that. But once you have a list of candidates with basic skills, you could just close your eyes and pick resumes at random, according to McKeown.
“If you hire at random, you end up with a diverse mix of perspectives rather than a carefully selected demonstration of your prejudices and preferences,” McKeown says. And don’t hire for what a candidate knows now. The market is always changing. Hire for the future; hire people who are willing to learn and adapt. With candidates like that, you have a good chance of keeping your company cutting edge.