Your organization needs rock stars to thrive, but finding the candidates who will take your organizations from the backyard battle of the bands to sold-out arenas is more difficult than it looks. In fact, we might have the idea of who is a “rock star” completely wrong.
So what does a “rock star” look like for a 21st-century organization? I talked to Fetcher co-founder Genevieve Jurvetson about how we can rethink talent acquisition, remove bias and find candidates who will get your organization rocking.
Listen to the full conversation or read the recap below. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Eliminating Bias
One of the big steps organizations can take to find better candidates is working to eliminate bias. Jurvetson says organizations have to begin by acknowledging that bias is real. “We are all hard-wired to be biased,” she says. “It is in our DNA, and it’s a protective mechanism.”
But this programming also dates from our days of living in caves — and now we’re living in condos. So what can we do to eliminate bias? Well, Jurvetson says that automation is a solution and that organizations like Fetcher can help eliminate bias through technological solutions. Now, that doesn’t mean that humans need to be removed from the process. They’re just going to take a new role in it: Making sure automated solutions are doing their job. “We have a belief at Fetcher — and I have a personal belief — that you need to bring in humans where you need their thoughtful oversight,” Jurvetson says. “You need to make sure that the algorithms or systems that you’ve put in place, or systems in place, are working in a way that you want them to.”
The New Signals We Can Look for in Job Candidates
Eliminating bias is only one of many steps organizations can take to find the rock star candidates their organizations need. But just as rock stars now look a little bit different than they did in the past, we also need to embrace new signals that signify a candidate’s quality. “This is a conversation we all need to be having in the people space,” Jurvetson says. “We need to look beyond the traditional proxies that might be really bias-laden.”
One of these traditional markers it what school someone attended. Jurvetson says that instead of focusing on education, recruiters should focus on trying to find candidates they predict will succeed at their organization. “Look for stronger signals of competency,” Jurvetson says. “Were they a rock star at their previous organization?”
Beyond career progression, Jurvetson says you can also look to a candidate’s actions during the recruiting process. For example, a sales rep that is willing to disclose their quotas is likely proud of their performance, knowing that it is a positive on their resume. “That might be far more important than the fact that they worked at Google, Facebook or Apple,” she says.
Eliminating Sourcing
It wouldn’t be an episode of #WorkTrends without a guest looking into our crystal ball. And Jurvetson has a pretty bold prediction for the future of work: “I think manual sourcing is dead in the next five to 10 years,” she says. The culprit? Automation, of course. “My view is that this task of manual sourcing gets handed over to machines,” she says.
However, this may actually be good news for those working in sourcing, she says. “They’re going to up-level their jobs and actually become the most critical part of an organization.” As automation takes over more rote tasks, sourcers will have the time to create more impact at their organizations and make more informed decisions. “I know it’s a little bit cheeky to say that a whole role is going away, but I think it means it’s being replaced by better stuff,” Jurvetson says.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
