“It’s better to have a hole in your team than an asshole in your team!”~ Dan Jacobs, Apple.
How do you choose your team? Better yet, how do you choose whom you’ll even allow an interview?
The way you choose can, and most times will make or break the success of your initiatives.
I’ve advised many times on this subject and I’m hopeful businesses will start taking notice of the flawed hiring systems they’ve adopted.
I remember a time when businesses hired high school grads, trained and promoted from within. If a person needed specific skills for promotion, the company would make those skills available to the ambitious. There were opportunity and loyalty on both sides. Something sorely missing in business today and, in my opinion, one of the systemic causes of countless issues in social, economic, and business quality decay.
What’s Wrong With Today’s Standard Hiring Practices?
We’ve moved into a digital resume scanning system, deleting anyone without the proper keywords (education, experience, etc…). Granted, in this economy, thousands of resumes may be received for one position, however, the time spent looking for personality and mindset, is worth every second.
The degree and experience are not what gets the job done, interact with the rest of the team, and deal with NEW issues in the economy and industry.
What Employers Need to Change About Candidate Eligibility
A personality and mindset of collaboration, solution, personal responsibility, learner’s brains, creativity, emotional and social intelligence can do the job and add to a strong successful team.
I’ve known countless high-functioning people whose talent and skill have gone to waste because they didn’t have the right credentials. I’ve also seen countless high-functioning people find a way to navigate around that issue (with a lot of luck and/or determination) and create amazingly successful businesses.
Why does it have to be one or the other? It doesn’t! Somewhere along the line, our country fell into this flawed system. Skills can be taught, every new employee and team member needs training in the position they will fill. Would it not be intelligent to hire based on the person, not solely on what’s on paper?
Challenging the Status Quo to Hire STRONG
My challenge to business owners and entrepreneurs; hire based on mindset and compatibility.
If I’m going to have surgery, you bet I want my doctor to have credentials, however, if I’m buying an Apple computer or flying on Virgin Airways, do I care if the people who created the business model even have a high school education? Not likely. What matters is the quality of the delivered results.
The ability to perform in the challenges of the rapidly changing environment in which we live cannot be assessed by the ability to regurgitate rote training. It comes from the ability to adapt, create, think, learn and take action.
