Perry Maddox explores why leaders must be able to hire young talent and explains how to do it successfully.
“You’ve never led anything like this.”
So an interviewer told me when I applied to Restless Development.
Yikes, not what you want to hear in an interview. But he was right. I hadn’t held a role like that before. Not even close. But then again, nor had I with my previous role. Or the one before that.
“No, I’ve never led anything like this,” I responded, “but what I can show you is a pattern of learning, adapting and succeeding when I step up into a new leadership role.”
It worked out, and I’m still with Restless Development today. But why and how did they make the hire when I clearly lacked the experience?
Because they knew how to hire young.
You Need Young Talent.
You will need to hire young at some point. The reasons are plentiful.
- Almost 6,000 baby boomers retire every day in the US alone. Ageing workforces must be replaced.
- If your work, clients or focus are youth-oriented, having young team members is essential.
- Many grassroots organizations rely on a flow of young volunteers and staff.
- Young staff bring qualities that others may lack, like greater adaptability and agility.
- Youth make up a huge share of the labour force in most countries.
There are plenty of different reasons to hire young, but they all share one problem.
It’s not easy to hire young.
That academic transcript won’t tell you much, sorry. Because young candidates bring less experience, have shallower professional references and are less experienced with job interviews, many of the traditional ways to evaluate talent fall short when it comes to hiring young.
To hire young talent successfully, you need to hire for something different.
Potential.
How to Hire On Potential.
The younger you hire, the more the future matters than the past.
There’s little point in asking a candidate to talk you through their job history if they’ve only been working for a year or two. The art of hiring young lies in evaluating future potential, not past experience. How will this person perform and grow over time? Do they have progression or leadership potential? What kind of team member will they become?
Easy to say, but how do you actually hire on potential?
It’s about mindset. That’s why I love Jason Shen’s Ted talk. I’ve been hiring on potential for 12 years with Restless Development, and three takeaways from his talk are spot on:
- Widen your search. If you just look for the same type of candidate background – the young person with the internships, activities and volunteering – you will drastically limit the potential talent you attract. It pays to expand your thinking and cast a wider net, especially when it comes to hiring young. Well-rounded young talent is usually that way because it was well-resourced through travel, tutors, internships, extracurricular experiences, and networks. Select for potential – not privilege – if you want to select the best talent.
- Test for performance. In a selection process, the best predictors of future performance are often tests of that job’s duties. So get your finance candidates working with your numbers, ask your fundraisers to pitch, or task your program team hires with real-life scenarios from your work. The younger you hire, the more you should practically test for ability during the selection process.
- Hire for what matters. As Shen explains, “stop equating experience with ability, credentials with competence.” I agree, but you have to go further. When I’m hiring young, I’m looking for a few key attributes: 1) learning and cognitive agility, 2) attitude, hunger and energy, and 3) transferrable, soft skills. I’m rarely disappointed when we hire young people with fire in the belly, who learn quickly and are open to being taught, who want to be part of what we do and to grow with us, and who bring essential skills like communication, listening and teamwork.
Start Now to Attract Top Talent.
Hiring on potential is difficult at first.
According to Gallup, 82% of organizations fail to select high-potential talent. That means that mastering the hire on potential will put you well ahead of the competition.
Remember that hiring is just the start. It is essential to develop new hires with training, support and on-the-job growth. As you do, watch those young hires over time. Who succeeds and who doesn’t?
Teach yourself what to look for next time.
Your skill in identifying and growing young talent matters a lot. The best young people want to join leaders who know how to attract and grow talent like them. Don’t forget, you need them to choose you, too.
Recruitment is a two-way street after all.
