Harnessing Transferable Skills

What makes you right for your job? Take a moment to think about it. Is it your experience or is it the skills you possess? The chances are it’s a combination of both. So why is so much emphasis still placed on having sectoral experience when recruiting? More importantly, what are companies missing by NOT considering candidates from alternate organisations? In seeking to answer these questions we spoke to Valerie Round, a leading freelance HR consultant and Tariq Ahmed, HR Director at London Business School (LBS) about the benefits of thinking more broadly when recruiting.

“When recruiting, I personally remain open to sector and focus more on what the individual can bring in terms of motivation, engagement and influencing skills, communication, team work and self-belief” Valerie said. One of the statements in any brief given to an executive search consultant or in-house recruiter should be ‘challenge the status-quo’. By interviewing candidates from outside the sector, there is a unique opportunity to meet individuals who view organisational challenges through a different lens.