Hiring

In a recent episode of The HR Life Podcast, my co-host and I talked to Ryan Kohler about the current state of AI, and it has left me contemplating the changes that are coming to business.   Most of us Gen Xers remember when we could program the VCR and our parents couldn’t. We were warned by our parents, teachers, and employers that the new required skill for everybody in the workforce was the ability to continually learn. Keep taking classes, go to seminars and conferences, adapt, and learn. All of that has come to fruition and is now commonplace. Gen X has done a pretty good job of that. Most of us who are professionals adopt new technology, keep abreast of the latest best practices, and are continually looking for new learning opportunities.   But that isn’t enough.   Most employers hire for experience and skill, looking for the person who has been there, done that, has the T-shirt, and is willing to do it again. The problem now, however, is that change is moving so fast that skill and experience might actually undermine positional progress six months from now. The person with the most experience may be reluctant to allow AI to replace some best practices that have been honed over the last decade, for example.   To what degree that is going to be the case, nobody knows yet, but it will be a factor for sure. If recent graduates booing commencement speakers is any indication, the reluctance by employees to rapidly adopt the latest technology may become a major factor. “What will push your company forward: the new hire who boos technological advances or the one who will automate your office staff’s administrative work, freeing them up to do other things?” This leads to the point of another recent guest on the podcast, Bryan McCurdy. Bryan makes the argument that you can’t hire based solely on skills and experience because finely honed skills may become obsolete so quickly that they become a hinderance to the business.   Experience may be an impediment to keeping up with change because a person can rely too much on it and not look for new, more efficient ways of accomplishing the same tasks.   That is why Bryan recommends hiring for aptitude and attitude over skills and experience. With everything changing so quickly, the most important attribute a candidate can have is the ability to adapt quickly, learn new ways of doing things, and the willingness to take the initiative to do that without being asked.   Now, don’t take the theory to unreasonable, but logical, extremes. Of course, experience can be valuable (you want an experienced doctor, for example, or an attorney who wins for most of his or her clients), but it may not be the most important factor when hiring new talent. What will push your company forward: the new hire who boos technological advances or the one who will automate your office staff’s administrative work, freeing them up to do other things?   In interviews, therefore, look for signs that the candidate is willing to wear multiple hats, research and learn how to utilize new technology, wants to build something and improve it, isn’t looking for additional money every time they take on a new challenge, and is interested in realizing the vision of the company. Do they have the aptitude to learn? Do they have the attitude necessary to grow and develop with the business? Are they hungry for new experiences and learning opportunities? (Which isn’t code for being willing to work massive amounts of hours.)   There are a lot more implications to our conversation with Ryan, and I’m just starting to contemplate what those are. Ryan isn’t the only one thinking about these things, however. Bryan is modifying traditional approaches to hiring and has provided a great blueprint for how to hire the next generation of rock-star performers who can program tomorrow’s VCRs.