CIO opinion
CIO OPINION
their recruitment opportunities to a wider
audience, searching for a balance of not
only qualifications, but experience that
demonstrates determination, loyalty,
ambition and passion. But when given a chance and left to her own
devices, she was able to build things on our
platform quicker than any of my existing
employees. Traditional recruitment routes
just don’t find these gems. With that in mind, focusing attention
on existing staff as well as updating the
recruitment process will ensure businesses
strike the right balance between retaining the
best and hiring those who can be the best.
When sifting through CVs, some of the most
important things I look for are how long
the candidate has spent in their previous
role and what interests they have outside
of work. Granted, triathlon experience in
practice may only pay off on the annual
work sports day, but it’s the transferable
skills behind that experience – resolve,
persistence, hunger – that will go a long way
in any business. We also need to be careful judging the
younger generation on their education. If
you think back to when you were a teenager,
I’m sure you get the same nightmarish
flashbacks as me: stress, hormones, peer
pressure, girlfriends, boyfriends. Regular complaints that I have heard a lot
as a business owner and CEO usually come
back to the feedback process during staff
reviews. Having to tell a staff member they
aren’t doing so well is never a nice feeling
and something that all managers dread – a
bad staff member doesn’t always mean a
bad person.
Perseverance in particular is an attribute I
have found to be a key to success. I once
interviewed a candidate for a sales role;
during the interview, she told me she
didn’t want a base salary, simply 100%
commission. A bold statement, but one that
demonstrated an extremely high level of
confidence in her ability to fulfil the job role
requirements. When you find those kinds of
people, you need to snap them up quickly
before someone else does. Everyone has the potential to achieve
greatness if only given the chance. In my
personal experience, formal apprenticeship
schemes that enable people without degrees
to experience all aspects of business are a
great opportunity to give people that chance. But with that in mind, if you want a staff
member to succeed, sometimes you must
be cruel to be kind. First off, a member of
management should never use the term
‘need to improve’. To have any kind of
helpful input, you must call out the specifics
– what do they need to improve on and how
can they do it?
Naturally, they can be a slight drain on
resources in the initial stages, but the end
results can be highly rewarding for both the
candidate and the company. Otherwise that staff member will never feel
empowered to change. We’re not at school
anymore – staff get better job satisfaction
from proper, actionable feedback.
Another crucial point to consider is that
the best candidates don’t always come
from the traditional interview-based hiring
route. One of my most unusual hires
started in a petrol station. A young woman
who had struggled to get a job due to her
background; working-class with minimal
education and a lack of qualifications. Making the most of existing talent Sometimes though, it will come around to
review time and there will be staff that are
doing great, they just aren’t quite ready for
the next step yet – and that’s fine.
“
Considering all those factors, is it reasonable
to write someone off simply based on the
results they got as a teenager?
Many business owners find themselves in
a never-ending hiring cycle. Fresh talent is
always welcome and a great addition to the
business will never go amiss, but hiring new
staff can be expensive and it never hurts to
boast a high staff retention rate.
COMPANIES AREN’T
HELPING THEMSELVES BY
NARROWING THEIR OPTIONS TO
THE UNIVERSITY EDUCATED.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
The problem is that those people too need
encouragement and considered feedback
that they can act on and feel inspired by to
achieve their goals. A simple ‘keep doing
what you’re doing’ just doesn’t cut it in
these situations.
Ultimately, people are like sponges – they
learn quickly if they are bright and given
the opportunity. The problem is that they
can be missed if the hiring criteria is too
narrow, or management fail to nurture
them in the right direction. I can speak
from experience when I say that not hiring
someone based on a superficial basis will
only result in the company missing out on
great talent.
Expanding recruitment opportunities to target
those from varied backgrounds and offering
existing staff the appropriate feedback
will ensure that isn’t the case. As business
management author, Tom Peters, once said,
‘hire for attitude and train for skills’. n
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