How to hire outside the box

This is just a super article by Maureen Farrell of Forbes.com dated April 16th, 2008. The focus is on the pros and cons of deciding to hire someone for your company who has a non traditional background. Many companies elect not to go outside their industry when hiring replacements or perhaps filling a newly developed position. It’s easy to understand – “employees with traditional backgrounds and similar skill sets yield predictable results. Predictability is good on some level, but it can be limiting, too. A non-traditional hire with different perspectives can inject sorely needed energy and creativity into the mix.”

But according to Margaret Neale, a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business who has studied the effect of diversity on companies - "When you increase the diversity of a group, you increase the probability that the group can have the necessary perspective to create the next big thing. People with different backgrounds ask different sets of questions. You ultimately get more information."

As the article states though, their can be pitfalls following this strategy. One must stay the course and ask the same set of interview questions as they would for a candidate inside the industry. Asking specific examples on ideas and problem solving strategies is especially critical to see the depth of an individual’s experience. Another key issue – be sure you have your team involved in some component of the interview process. This is such a good tactic for both your teams’ development and for the candidate.

Finally, a crucial element to consider – doing the thorough reference check. Be sure to ask the person to reflect on a time when the candidate displayed the qualities you're looking for. You'll learn more.

Following some of these tactics as well as using your invaluable experience in previous hiring decisions will lead to creating an organization that is capable of ‘thinking outside the box’ in regard to so many of the issues facing us in our great industry.

Until next time….