Experts in talent mapping, pipelining, executive search and talent insights. Working with the world’s most influential & respected businesses undergoing transformational change, gaining market insights needed to identify & recruit specialised talent
With decreasing talent pools in which to fish, and some roles in extremely high demand globally, organisations need to throw away the old rule book and look at talent through a new lens.
This could be considering out-of-sector and out-of-region talent, internal employees who don’t already have the skills for the role, non-graduates or apprentices for traditional graduate roles or accessing diverse talent that shows potential. It requires a different onboarding approach, different ways of messaging and so on. So how can organisations identify and attract this new talent and what do they need to consider in doing so?
According to Olivia O’Loughlin, regional director for our brand partner Armstrong Craven’s EMEA area, the need to reimagine how we attract talent, retain talent and build succession plans is now key to the success of any organisation. And one way of doing this is to hire for potential rather than experience.
“Researchers, academics and business leaders alike have all agreed time and time again that hiring for potential is more important than solely hiring for experience,” she says. “It's not one against the other but that 'versus' definitely comes into play in terms of the weighting.”
There are numerous benefits for taking this approach, O’Loughlin says. Among these are diversity, innovation and helping align your talent strategy to business objectives.
“Some 95% of hiring today is still solely based on replacement or filling existing positions. But what if we change that? What if we looked at potential against capabilities and needs that the clients and organisations need for the future? And knowing what your business needs tomorrow is critical, and I believe that hiring and promoting for potential can absolutely support that,” she says.
In this video interview O’Loughlin explores the benefits of hiring and promoting for potential, looks at what organisations need to do to identify their talent gaps and outlines the first three steps HR and talent leaders need to take if they want to start hiring for and promoting for potential.
About Olivia O’Loughlin
Olivia O’Loughlin is regional director for Armstrong Craven’s EMEA region, based in its Geneva office. She joined Armstrong Craven in 2010 and manages a team of pan-European specialised client partners across life sciences, financial services, technology, consumer and industrial sectors. Olivia sits on the operational Board at AC and joined the global AC leadership team in 2017.
To download an edited transcript click here. To find out more about how Armstrong Craven can help you with workforce planning and talent intelligence please click here