Employers think outside the square for candidates

You don't have to be nuts to take risks, Superbank CEO James Munro prefers lateral thinking when hiring. Picture/ Daily Post

Managers talk a lot about getting fresh blood and new ideas into their organisation but, if you're expecting it from the people you traditionally hire, then you're probably looking in the wrong place.

SuperBank CEO James Munro says it is important to hire candidates a little bit outside the square to liven things up and to challenge your organisation.

"You need to remain fresh and you need to look for new ideas. And they can come from all sorts of places and all sorts of sources. But as an organisation, you can't be generating that internally unless you've actually got people who arrive fresh."

Recruiters are also seeing the benefits of hiring what many people refer to as "lateral candidates".

The New Zealand general manager of Hudson Recruitment, Peter Harbidge, says although employers here are some of the most conservative in the world, they are beginning to be more open-minded when it comes to hiring people who might want a change.

"We see people coming to us and saying look: 'I've been doing this for a certain number of years - I'd like to try something completely different'. And there's a growing appetite among employers to consider that."

Harbidge says the trend was primarily being driven by the skill shortage, but is now having positive spin-offs.

"The initial motivation was the fact that their options were reduced, but they're starting to like the idea of adding more diversity to their culture."

People with backgrounds which do not reflect the employment history you are accustomed to seeing might be exactly what you need, says Munro.

"If they arrive fully formed, then expect great skilful functional execution and maybe you'll get something on top of that, maybe you won't."

Munro expects a lot from his employees and wants them to have a passion for what they do.

"In this day and age, in your organisation you want people who are excellent at their job and then some. You want them to be excellent at their job and when they're finished being excellent at their job, actually sitting with a glass of wine in the evening and thinking up some amazing idea and bringing it in in the morning and saying, 'Hey ... why don't we try that?'."

Munro hired a marketing manager for SuperBank who had never worked in a bank and had very little marketing experience. But he knew Inge Doig could do the job, and two and a half years down the track she's still doing it.

"It's not about being under-qualified. It's about having that skewed skill set that can contribute to the organisation in a broader sense than perhaps someone with a very traditional focus might."

Munro says it's hard for people who have been in the same industry all their lives to think outside the square and to come up with new ideas or innovative ways of doing things.

"The longer you work in a particular discipline, the more you work in a particular field, the more you see it, arguably the less original you are going to become."

People brought in from the outside with a different background, yet skilful and intelligent, are likely to be the innovators.

"If all you ever do in an organisation is fill square boxes with square pegs - expect a predictable and linear outcome. Now, for some organisations, that's perfectly fine ... if you're in an extremely stable market in a very strong position and your job is maintenance.

"If it's all about efficiency rather than effectiveness - minimising costs against a flat or an even declining revenue base, then absolutely, fill square holes with square pegs. But don't expect the next great ideas to come out of those people to take the organisation forward."

For Munro, too much experience in one particular area can be limiting. "It's good to have someone who doesn't necessarily know what is or isn't possible. If you don't know what the limitations are, then you're far less likely to apply them in your own mind to solutions that you're trying to put in place."

Munro says he provides an environment where people are encouraged to ask questions.

"It never actually does an organisation any damage to go and ask those questions anyway, because things change. Things change systemically, things change within the organisation and sometimes the answers are different.

" Sometimes someone with a new set of eyes can put a different spin on what the answer might be."

Candidates must still be qualified and capable but if all the appropriate boxes are not ticked on the application form, there might still be hope. Munro believes that a well-educated intelligent person can probably handle anything.

"You're looking to hire someone who's got a high level of raw intelligence in any case. At a mid and senior level within an organisation, I believe it takes three months for people to even get their feet under the desk, regardless of what their historic experience and qualification is, and probably six months before they start contributing in a net sense.

"Anyone with the raw intellectual horsepower and the broad commercial ability is going to be able to do that."

Munro says there should always be at least a consideration to hire someone outside the square, even if they are not the final pick.

"Every time you're making an employment decision, you should have a lateral candidate in the pot. Most of the time probably you won't want to employ the lateral candidate. You'll get down to it and look at team dynamics and six out of 10 times you'll want to employ the linear candidate.

But four out of 10 times or three out of 10 times you might want to say, 'No I'm going to mix it up and have that lateral candidate in there'. Simply thinking outside the box - that's what it comes down to."\

Change for the best

An agricultural-economics degree might not be the first qualification you would look for when hiring a marketing manager for a bank, but Inge Doig is handling the job just fine.

Before working at SuperBank, she had never worked in a bank and had only some low-level marketing experience.

"The company obviously made a choice to employ somebody without a banking background and with hopefully some really good skills, with some marketing background but certainly not having been in a marketing manager role at that level before."

SuperBank CEO James Munro hired Doig 2 1/2 years ago and has never looked back.

"That's been really good in a start-up organisation like ours where you've got to be very fleet of foot and you don't want the answers from your marketing manager to be, 'Well we need a $10,000 above the line television campaign', which anyone can tell you."

Munro could see Doig would be capable of working outside the square.

"She was far more sales-orientated but she had all of the raw intellectual skills to become a good strong marketer with a bit of help. And that's been really good."

Doig was tasked with building a brand for SuperBank. She says Munro is a bit of a mentor and gives her all the support she needs.

"There is a good support structure in place. I love this job and it was really a field that I wanted to be in."