5 Tactics That Will Help You Find Hidden Talent

There are many lessons that can be learned from the fabled career of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, but there’s one that’s especially relevant for recruiters: Look for talent where no one else is looking.. 

“He was not at all rigid about what qualifications he was looking for,” writes former Apple senior vice president Jay Elliot in his book Leading Apple with Steve Jobs. “Sometimes his choices surprised me, when he saw something in a candidate hardly anyone else would have seen — something that told him, ‘This is the right person for the job.’” 

That kind of thinking led Steve to hire Susan Kare back in the early 1980s when he was developing the Macintosh computer. At the time, Susan was an accomplished artist but knew nothing about technology. She would go on to create the original Mac icons, including the famous “Happy Mac” smiling computer, establishing herself as a graphic design legend.

Steve’s ability to discover “hidden talent” clearly yielded dividends for Apple, and other employers can realize similar rewards. Recruiters who dig deeper to source candidates can help companies bridge talent gaps and assemble A-list teams. The following are some tips to help you uncover hidden gems.

1. Look beyond top schools

For years, employers have sought candidates who attended top-tier schools because they’ve believed these academic institutions attract the best and the brightest. But if you rely on that approach, you will be missing out on talented individuals who didn’t have the opportunity to attend elite colleges and grad schools.

“Many high achievers, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, attend less prestigious universities for reasons having nothing to do with ability,” writes Lauren Rivera, a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, in the Harvard Business Review. 

Instead of seeking candidates with certain pedigrees, look for people who have the skills necessary to get the job done. In fact, a growing number of employers are dropping degree requirements altogether for certain positions and are focusing on skills requirements. 

You can use online tools to screen candidates based on their skills. LinkedIn Skill Assessments, for instance, can help you verify a job seeker’s technical, business, and design skills.

2. Focus on transferable skills 

Another way to find hidden talent is by being open to hiring candidates with transferable skills — skills that are not tied to a particular industry — such as adaptability, communications, and problem-solving. Someone with customer service experience who is good at listening to customers, for example, might make a fit for a client-facing position in another industry. A LinkedIn survey predicts that recruiters will increasingly prioritize job applicants’ transferable skills over their technical capacity to do specific tasks.

Adjust your job listings to let job seekers know that you’re willing to hire people with transferable skills. “Rather than listing every possible skill you’d like a candidate to have on day one, focus on a small number of essential skills and knowledge,” Monster says on its website, “and augment those with broader skills that you’d like everyone in your company to have, such as strong communications skills or a customer-focused approach.”

One way to assess whether candidates’ skills are transferable to your workplace is by simulating work experiences. During job interviews, consulting firm McKinsey, for instance, presents job candidates with “real client scenarios” to gain a sense of their problem-solving abilities.

Steve Jobs was clearly thinking about transferable skills when he asked Susan Kare to join his Mac team. “Steve saw in her a spark, the ability to catch on quickly and the kind of creativity that suggested she would be able to offer the kind of inventive contributions Steve was committed to having,” Jay Elliot writes in his book. 

3. Start your candidate search at the bottom of your search results

It’s no secret that recruiters look at the top of search results when sourcing candidates online. The problem is you and everyone else have put in similar keywords and are therefore getting similar results.

Sourcing guru Glen Cathey recommends starting at the bottom of search results. Being a contrarian may lead you to strong candidates that competing recruiters have ignored. 

“If you’re not getting to the bottom,” Glen says, “then you’re actually not looking at some of the best candidates.”

4. Get creative with your search terms

It’s standard practice to use the job title you’re looking for in searches. But that method, Glen says, also leaves out many great candidates.

For instance, you may be on the hunt for data scientists, but there are many people who fit that description who don’t use those words when describing themselves.

How do you find them? By looking for other terms commonly used by people in comparable positions, Glen says. Start by scouring the profiles of a few candidates who identify themselves as data scientists and look for other phrases that pop up in their profiles. You might see terms like “data centers” or “analytics.” You can then incorporate those words into your searches and ultimately find hidden candidates who match your needs.

Sometimes people misspell keywords in their LinkedIn profiles, rendering them “missing” in standard searches. Engineers, for instance, might add an extra “e” by accident or even intentionally, because they don’t want to be bombarded by InMails. You can get around that obstacle by researching common misspellings on LinkedIn, says Angie Verros, the CEO of Vaia Talent. When Angie finds candidates this way, she mentions the typo in her initial message as a way to forge a connection. 

5. Recruit from populations that others avoid

If you conduct a background check and learn that a job seeker has a criminal record, do you take a pass? Many employers do. That creates an opportunity for companies that are willing to look beyond stereotypes and give ex-offenders a chance. 

Ex-offenders represent a large untapped group of potential hires. In the U.S. alone, nearly 1 in 3 working-age adults has a criminal record. A survey from SHRM found that 82% of managers and 67% of HR professionals believe that the quality of workers with criminal records is about the same or higher than the quality of workers without records. 

Like workers with criminal records, individuals who are unhoused are often stigmatized by employers. But some employers have set aside their preconceived notions and successfully hired workers who don’t have permanent homes. An organization called Shelters to Shutters screens homeless candidates and then refers them to real estate companies where they work as groundskeepers, maintenance techs, and leasing agents. The outcome appears to be positive. The retention rate for these employees is higher than the industry standard, Shelters to Shutters says. 

Final thoughts

When it comes to finding hidden talent, using old-line recruiting strategies won’t do. 

By focusing less on pedigree, sharpening your search methods, and being open to candidates that other employers bypass, you can do a better job positioning your organization for success and maybe you’ll even spot some superstar employees along the way.

*Photo by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash

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