Meg is a Human Resource Professional and empathetic leader who grows talent and teams to achieve their dreams.
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We all know the best teams are diverse. Combining different skills, experiences and ways of thinking leads to the most innovative ideas and solutions. Yet, during the hiring process, it's tempting to focus only on the candidates who embody the tried and true. This practice, however, won't diversify thinking, provide complementary skill sets within teams or attract employees with different experiences and new ideas. To achieve true team diversity, you must step back and reimagine what you think you know.
One area worth careful consideration during hiring is what experiences and skills are needed for someone to be successful in the role you're filling. But don't just limit your search to candidates who match the role's technical "must-haves." Instead, widen your pool by diversifying your understanding of skills.
Turn The Technical Into The Transferable
Oftentimes, many specialized or technical skills can be learned on the job. So when hiring, think about non-specialized needs that can be met by candidates from a different industry or environment who have the right transferable skills. These may be hard skills that can be applied to new challenges, such as familiarity with certain platforms and programs, data analysis or budgeting. They may also include soft skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, relationship building and active listening.
Let's say you're searching for someone whose role would require creating client collateral and leading client presentations. You'd likely, and understandably, focus on candidates with client experience. But if you want to diversify your hiring, think about the transferable skills that make someone a strong presenter, writer and relationship builder.
For example, I find that candidates with teaching experience often have skills that make them a strong choice. They're well versed in creating course instructions, preparing lectures and presentations, presenting to large groups, anticipating needs and answering questions. Coupled with adaptability and curiosity, these professionals are quite capable of transitioning to new industries and client-facing roles that require information sharing.
Unlike hard skills, it's difficult to teach people to be empathic, collegiate, humble, kind or resilient. Bringing on people who embody these traits is one way I've ensured team diversity throughout my career. If these skills are important to your organization—and I bet they are—then include them in your search criteria. For example, share with candidates that critical soft skills that may help them thrive at your organization include the ability to learn quickly, ask questions and interpret new information.
Consider More Than Professional Experiences
Beyond looking for key skills within someone’s work experience, I've found true jewels of information when asking candidates to share more about their volunteer experiences. As those experiences often mean working with limited resources, I get to hear examples of the candidate's resourcefulness, dedication and collaborative efforts as they work within communities to solve problems and achieve positive outcomes. These are often applicable to the workplace and reflect the skills needed to work efficiently within a team.
It's also helpful to include a few questions focused on individual curiosity and tenacity. For example, I may ask a candidate to tell me about a time they were compelled to try something new or if they've taught themselves something unrelated to work in the last year. This gives candidates a wealth of examples to showcase their abilities and interests, providing greater insight into how they think about issues, solve problems, navigate unknowns and manage time. Most importantly, it can highlight their ability to seek out information and learn new things—important skills to have in any industry.
A candidate with the potential to learn and grow over time can be more valuable than a candidate with a limited set of experiences. In today’s market, we need to reach beyond what we know to find the best talent. We now have access to statistics that let us know which industries, schools and communities have diverse talent and, more importantly, which do not. We can use this information to bring new talent into our organizations.
If we continue to search for diverse talent in non-diverse environments, we can't expect things to change. After all, if you keep fishing in a lake stocked with trout, you can't be surprised that you aren't catching salmon. You need to fish somewhere else! Try new locations, different lures, different rods, a different time of day. By mixing things up, you might get that salmon, or you might get a fluke or a bass or even a turtle. Be patient and try again.
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