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Article from The Straits Times, 27th August 2000
Hire Outside The Box
Would you dare to venture beyond the safe and hire people who may not have the relevant experience? These hires may actually transform your business.
I ran a workshop for a group of senior managers from a hotel chain in Hong Kong recently.
Out of the 23 participants, three were above 50 years old.
What really delighted me and their boss, who was sitting in as an observer, was that not only were they the most enthusiastic and eager to participate among the entire lot, two of them actually came up with new and definitely most creative methods of solving a puzzle.
This also goes to prove that creativity does not necessarily come only from the new economy younger generation.
Going through the in-tray when I got back to my Singapore office, I came across a letter from my yacht club announcing the appointment of its latest general manager.
I realized that I knew the person – a former colleague of mine from the hospitality industry.
That got me thinking about the HR implications of this appointment.
Like many other organisations, the yacht club had chosen what I call the “safe way”.
Rather than risk hiring a candidate from outside the industry, they though it safer to hire someone with the proven expertise.
Nothing wrong with that, you might say.
However, like most things, there are two sides to the story – or pros and cons, in other words.
Choosing a “safe” candidate almost guarantees that his learning curve at the new place will be that much shorter, and the chances of making mistakes, that much lesser.
However, there are merits in choosing people from outside the industry. They may bring with them fresh ideas and business solutions that are outside the box.
These may be ideas and solutions that seasoned industry players may never think of – not because they are less intelligent or capable, but simply because they are so used to doing things in a certain fashion and looking at situations from a specific angle.
Let me share with you an example.
During the Hong Kong creative workshop mentioned above, I got the group to brainstorm and think of “off the wall” ways to manage some of their current challenges.
One of them came up with a gem of a solution to bring in extra revenue for the hotel at which she works.
Instead of letting space in her training room go to waste on the days when it was not being used, she suggested marketing the use of the room to HR departments in other organisations that want to conduct off-site workshops, but lack the budget to pay for one in a hotel, where rates can be very high.
To these organisations needing space, the alternatives are limited.
To attract these HR people to her hotel, she suggested offering them the rooms for a fee lower than what other hotels (including her own) would have normally charged.
Of course, that price would not include waiters bustling around with fresh supplies of mint, tea and coffee.
The person who suggested this gem of an idea has no experience in sales and marketing but is with her company’s HR department.
I have not come across many hiring organisations that are willing to look favorably at candidates outside their industry, especially at the very senior level.
But to be fair, there are some. To the decision makers of the latter category, I salute you, not because you are brave enough, but because you see the benefits of doing so.
For the newly-hired staff, it is a different experience being able to utilize their transferable skills in a totally new business environment.
This is a surefire way of stimulating the creative juices, not to mention the self-motivation that comes with it.
HR managers can, and should, play a key role in influencing their senior management in this regard.
If you are truly strategic in your role, you should highlight the merits of such hiring strategies to your bosses.
Don’t be surprised if they say: “Hey, I never thought of it that way! Let’s give it a short.”
As our business world becomes more dynamic and challenging, it is imperative that we have senior managers who are able to look at situations and challenges with a totally fresh an innovative perspective – and the hiring of professionals outside their main industry domain could be a good way of tackling these challenges.
Would you dare to take up this proposition?
Paul Heng
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