How best to hire for your digital initiatives (1/2)

In order to digitalise your operations, you need to find the right talents. How do companies which are successful in staffing digitalisation projects do it? It is not about offering higher pay, nor about spending more on training.

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It is mainly about what is going beyond conventional recruitment practices. Don’t focus merely on the best universities and attracting people away from your competitors.

How to build robust talent pipelines

What you can do is start recruiting people who are able to develop the necessary skills. Then incentivise them to develop these skills.

It boils down to few recommendations, according to an article published in the Harvard Business Review.

Look for potential rather than current expertise

The life cycles of technology skills (e.g. currently popular programming language) tend to be close to two years. This means any technical expertise expires relatively quickly. Therefore, aim for candidates who are curious and quick learners.

Successful companies are not afraid of hiring less educated people (e.g. vocational or trade school graduates) or people who have just finished military service or are returning to work after taking care of children. Such candidates may actually be more motivated, resilient and agile.

Unilever uses online games and video interviews to screen candidates – and these candidates aren’t solely from small campuses. This is a thing of the past. To filter candidates, algorithms are used, thanks to which the likelihood that successful candidates will receive and accept an offer has doubled.

Pay attention to not only technical but also soft skills

Nowadays, IT is not only about writing specifications and coding them; it is much more about identifying problems and then solving them. If you want to use digital tools to improve the customer experience, soft skills suddenly become highly relevant.

-jk-

Article source Harvard Business Review - flagship magazine of Harvard Business School
Read more articles from Harvard Business Review

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