Companies that only ever hire when the need for new talent arises are arguably shooting themselves in the foot. In today’s highly dynamic startup ecosystem, “change” has become the status quo, and with digital companies forced to reinvent themselves as new trends continue to emerge and disrupt, it’s no longer prudent to hire on an “as needed” basis. In the digital market where the next big thing is always around the corner, intelligent companies are the ones who recognize that perhaps it’s time to rethink their approach to hiring new talent, even if it means hiring before the need arises.
Experience and academic credentials – which have long been two of the most important considerations for most employers when hiring – are not as important in the world of Digital. In fact, the digital market welcomes talent with varying levels of experience from a variety of disciplines. The “who you are” and “what you’re able to contribute” have a far greater bearing on the value of a potential candidate than their career path “on paper”, but it seems that many companies still don’t get it.
One of the biggest challenges for digital companies is keeping up with the constant need for reinvention. The relentless pace of change, the ability to adapt quickly, to predict the next big trend and to deliver the right solutions through marketing and product development pose a pretty big challenge for digital companies.
One glaring pain point – especially for me in the recruitment business in Israel – is the absence of a local tier of management in digital marketing that focuses on the development of global-scale strategy and leadership. One of the reasons for this is that when Israeli startups become successful and reach a certain scale, many of them transfer their marketing operations to the US (while leaving their R&D activity in Israel). There are some good strategic CMOs locally, but very few, and the decision to relocate the marketing arm of growing startups overseas (which has become the norm here), prevents the creation of senior digital marketers locally, and along with it the ability to develop the kind of strategic know-how that’s on a par with senior marketing VPs overseas.
As it turns out, in every country (Israel included), there’s an organization that’s responsible for determining which areas of study will be the most important for future generations based on areas of growing demand in the job market and their anticipated evolution. This department is known in most Western countries by a version of the name “Vocational Education and Training” and their research guides educational institutions when developing programs designed to prepare the current generation for the jobs of the future.
The thing is, that in the Digital market, given the absence of a clear correlation between an area of study and the relevant experience, it’s very difficult to predict future demand for roles in this space. It might be possible to identify certain vocational directions, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll still be around “one day” given the ability for “the next big thing” in digital to totally disrupt professions that were once easy to define with clear-cut job descriptions. Put simply, there’s no absolute match between academic qualifications and a specific job or role in the Digital space.
So how does one recruit in a world with so many unknown variables? You need to disrupt the way it’s always been done in the past, with the kind of disruption that might feel at first as uncomfortable as moving the cheese, but which may ultimately lead to a new kind of future for the company.
As employers and recruiters in the Digital space, we need to remember that we operate in a volatile industry, where whoever employs the right kind of talent holds the keys to the future.
In a world where the most valuable talent ‘currency’ is defined by abilities and a way of thinking, digital companies must also become more creative, sophisticated, and amenable to employing special-case candidates who may not seem to fit a predefined job description, but who still have a certain ‘X Factor’ and way of thinking that could potentially be a huge asset for the company.
This approach to hiring talent based on long-term potential rather than immediate benefits isn’t new, but despite being relatively original, it also comes with an Achilles Heel. Young unfunded startups and companies that operate by necessity based on a “lean” model, for example, can’t always afford the luxury of hiring talent that doesn’t fill an immediate requirement.
To my delight, however, I have noticed among local startups in the Digital space a certain awakening to the notion of hiring “superstars” who don’t necessarily fit standard job descriptions. This awakening has led some employers in the industry – in particular some of Israel’s global startups (operating internationally) – to recognize these kinds of out-of-the-box candidates, and create roles that will entice them to join their companies (often with job titles that include the word “Innovation”). Even if their immediate benefit may not yet be clear, the odds that this kind of talent will yield the company’s next significant leap forward, is proving to be worth the initial uncertainty.
Some forward-thinking Israeli companies in the Digital space – like AppsFlyer, SimilarWeb, Gett, Sears Israel, Wix and Playbuzz – are great examples of companies that are open to the idea of dialogue with digital “superstars” in order to find (or create) roles for them that will allow them to thrive.
To give you an example, I recently worked with a locally-based global company to fill a Marcom role (the kind that in Israel requires a mid-level professional who can do “a little bit of everything”). The original idea was that this person would organize all of the marketing collateral (interviews, stories, testimonials, etc.) here in Israel, and then forward it for ‘polishing’ and ultimately distribution and management by the marketing leadership overseas.
However, when one of the candidates I sent them to fill the position turned out to be from a similar field (not the exact same field that the company was operating in) – the employer understood that this particular candidate could potentially help them achieve goals they hadn’t even conceived of yet. At his third interview, the candidate presented an idea for reaching brand new markets using a strategy that was completely different from the one that had been formulated by the American marketing team, and the employer (who was obviously impressed) decided to bring him on board to manage all of the Marcom teams globally.
It’s important for me to mention that the word “Marcom” didn’t appear even once in the candidate’s CV, even though it was a keyword in the title for this position. Only after meeting with the candidate, did the company realize that he possessed that ‘X Factor’ that could take them to places that a Marcom person by their traditional definition – couldn’t.
This kind of rare talent come from all sorts of fields: Content, UX, Creative, Analytics and more. The point is that just as the world of Digital is diverse, dynamic and fast-paced, so must companies operating in this space behave when hiring: They should remain open to expanding their team’s DNA based on the understanding that this could expand their companies’ achievement-potential in the future, and they should do it quickly, because the more companies become aware of this strategy, the faster the digital superstars out there are being snapped up.
(Posted as a guest post at the Viola Group blog, translated from Hebrew By Noya Lizor)
Picture: Neal Fowler
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