Must Have's make me cry! - Welcome to gcr3

Perhaps the single most significant challenge faced by those charged with the responsibility of recruiting these days……is the ‘Must Have’!

Conceding here that recruitment is never easy – committing to someone new is a BIG investment and the pressure is on for you to get it right!

Driven by the fear of getting it wrong [no one wants to be responsible for a bad hire!]– you start penning your selection criteria. You are going to do everything you can to prevent error and so you start out like this…

know how [experience]

Qualification: Must Have a Marketing Degree.
Position Experience: Must Have 5 years experience working in a similar position.
Industry Experience: Must Have worked in our Industry before.

Tears now!!

When I read this list, I get worried. In fact, the words ‘Must Have’ immediately invoke a startling mental image in my head – of 50 candidates being herded together and thrown straight in the ‘unsuccessful’ heap….. without a second thought. And there’s me, looking back at the pile, saying….but, but, you missed the best one!!

So Must Haves make me cry. As the best talent gets thrown out of the pool all too often….and for no good reason!

Next time you get to writing a selection criteria challenge yourself – wherever you can withhold from prescribing a ‘Must Have’ – and watch how much extra power you pull from your recruitment function as a result.

Must Haves are doing you no favors. In fact they are counterproductive to your cause and their logic stinks!

Because whose to say that someone with an Engineering Degree can’t be the best Marketer?

Whose to say that someone with 1 years experience can’t add more value than someone with 5?

And by insisting on someone from your industry aren’t you conceding you want to be just like your competitors?

In recruitment too, like most things in business, logic is king!

“My challenge on the gcr3 journey is to expand your thinking. To move you away from the trappings of the traditional approach – to not rely so much on a candidate’s experience. Reading through a Resume 5 times over and searching for the answer in the print, is a bad habit. Put the Resume down for a moment and let me introduce you to the ‘ability’ and ‘energy’ dimensions. These dimensions are powerful. And when you understand them, recruitment will always be something you really look forward to.”

Priscilla Curtis

CEO & Founder, gcr3