Stop Fishing in the Same Pool

Attracting the best talent doesn’t necessarily mean attracting the best like-for-like talent.

A McKinsey & Company report points out that “traditional sources of [talent attraction] strength are coming under pressure from intensifying competition for talent”, which, while not ground-breaking in its message, highlights a crucial point; the need to look beyond the usual places.

The outside of the box approach to talent attraction is well articulated by a comment in Forbes, which hits a current note, in that “a non-traditional hire with different perspectives can inject sorely needed energy and creativity into the mix”. This isn’t to say that traditional sources of talent don’t bring creativity and energy, but rather that diversity in skill sets, experiences and backgrounds can offer different perspectives and solutions to issues, which may not otherwise come to fruition. Vivian Hunt, Managing Partner for UK & Ireland at McKinsey goes further when she recently highlighted that “when we are surrounded by people who are similar to us, we are more likely to be influenced by groupthink and fall for wrong ideas.”

Two differing industries, Wealth Management and Aviation, that have traditionally hired from their own sectors, share the common perception that their traditional pools of respective talent are ‘incestuous’ in nature and ‘everybody knows everybody’. However, both have seen some refreshing approaches to diverse talent attraction in recent times which, in turn, demonstrate some of the associated benefits of hiring from elsewhere.