While nothing can be taken away from skills assessments in IT hiring, an early overemphasis on them can blind you to who you are hiring. To employ diverse and creative teams, we need to flip the hiring process on its head.
The traditional hiring process is an obstacle course that candidates must navigate to prove themselves. The hurdles, like a lengthy list of skills or certifications, may feel insurmountable. The result: Your company forfeits the opportunity to hire gifted individuals who don’t fit the mold.
Organisations should be jumping through hoops to ensure that more candidates, particularly those with uncommon backgrounds, can complete the race. This requires a major shift in the focus of hiring. While skills assessment plays an important role in hiring, an early overemphasis on skill-matching can focus on pedigree at the expense of promise.
Organisations thrive when they take the time to find, hire, and onboard individuals who contribute diverse perspectives and fresh approaches to problem-solving.
I’ve seen how organizations thrive when they take the time to find, hire, and onboard individuals who contribute diverse perspectives and fresh approaches to problem-solving. Conversely, I’ve witnessed how more homogenous teams appear to gel quickly but later struggle to deliver innovative products.
5 ways to rethink your IT hiring process
Thoughtful and holistic evaluation of candidates must become the driving force of the hiring process, rather than an afterthought during interviews. Here are a few guidelines that can help make that happen.
1. Start with values and potential
Early in the traditional hiring process, companies narrow their search around qualifications or work experience to find the right candidates. By concentrating on what someone has done in the past, companies may overlook what that individual is capable of doing in the future. Only late in the interview stage do hiring managers dig into intangible qualities like curiosity, creativity, and collaboration. To hire diverse and creative teams, flip this process on its head.
Cont… to read the full original article written by Nimrod Hoofien, Head of Product Engineering at Gusto, please follow the link https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2021/7/it-hiring-5-tips-improve-your-process
