In a world where technology costs are racing to zero and Microsoft is giving away software for free, how is value created? As Gary Hamel said – “We aren’t in the knowledge economy. We are in the Creative Economy”. It is the ideas that generate tremendous economic value.
While command and control structures continue to prevail with a fake sense of accomplishment, it is those firms that redirect their energies to nurturing talent that can create economic value through ideas, will survive. This requires a dramatic shift in the cultural mindset of the people that start with acquiring that exact type of talent.
Classic recruiting process involves identifying a need and writing up a job description, which is often where the disconnects start. That disconnect starts bleeding into the sourcing process and the tremendous amount of time and resources are wasted. The process then involves sifting through piles of misfit resumes. The processes that follow continue to waste time and energy of engineers and it comes down to who is better at proving the other person wrong. In the end, recruiting is all about moving people through the system to maximize the fee for service.
Engaging in this classic style recruiting is no way to identify talent where ideas are what matter. The right talent can only be identified by people who are capable of solving the problems themselves. Imagine if we had a ‘recruiter’ who would screen doctors that would perform your brain surgery! It is the time that recruiters ramp up their skills to go beyond just paper pushing and develop real problem-solving skills, themselves before they get into the business of helping companies with hiring the right talent. The fee for service model should change to pay for performance because ‘outcomes’ matter and ‘output’ is irrelevant.