Nontraditional talent

In a September post, "Just Like Me" I shared the following:

Quick note of warning about thin-slicing and making generalizations too much – it’s easy to miss a diamond in the rough.  In large part these theories are interpreted in a way that assumes more perfect information than reality affords.  Often, individuals don’t fully know who they are, or what they may be good at doing, or even identifying traits in other individuals and organizations.  From an employer perspective, recruiters are often looking for identical experience to fill a role when a better fit might be for someone making a developmental turn – or from a different industry that utilizes similar skills. 

This month's Talent Management magazine has an interesting article:  "Hiring Talent With Nontraditional Backgrounds."  It's a nice overview of the pitfalls and opportunities of hiring outside of what might be considered the "normal" pools of sourced talent.  Here's the kicker:  "

Individuals with diverse academic and vocational backgrounds can be a boon to business, but talent managers must do their homework to determine the proficiency and cultural fit of these 'outsiders.'"So how to find these people?


While it's not a major change in approach, it is a shift in thinking about talent.  In defining the requirements for the successful candidate, think about the tactical requirements while stripping away the non essential.  This approach promotes a broader view of available talent, and also helps external talent self-select into applying for roles.For example, change language like this..."

Knowledge of internal risk and standard technical analysis processes based on firm best practices as developed by the firm's ABC team and  leveraged across the DEF space to drive results using proprietary system GHI, but within the firm-specific regulatory parameters as determined by JKL and MNO agencies"...to something like this..."

Understanding of basic risk principles, statistical variance, and scenario analysis; experience using statistical tools and conducting root cause analysis; executive presence and comfort level with internal and external high-value stakeholders"

Happy hunting,

Bryan