How to recruit in a VUCA environment

In this VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambigious) environment, attracting the right talent is more important than ever but how do you find the right people in a challenging landscape?

Lee De Souza, Managing Director of Harrison Bridge recommends the following:

Consider talent in and out of your industry

Hiring outside of an industry has been pioneered by executive search firms such as ours for years. This opens a much broader talent pool with which to choose from and often ‘leftfield’ candidates can offer a wider breadth of experience as well as offer insight from other industries.

Agree on what the key competencies of the role are that are required

You might need to hire a Programme Director for a novel technology project that has never been done before. In this situation, asking candidates about their experience of programme managing similar technology projects with undefined project milestones will give you a much better idea of doing something similar for your organisation.

Is the culture of your organisation fit for purpose or does it need to change?

Recruiting leaders that have experience of cultural / corporate change will go a long way to supporting organisational goals.

Assess candidates based on their hard and soft skills

Hard skills include specific knowledge and abilities whereas soft skills focus on personality traits and attributes. Someone can tick all the boxes for hard skills but if they lack relationship building skills in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment they will get frustrated and potentially cause damage in and out of an organisation.

Hire adaptable employees

Organisations should focus on attracting, retaining and developing adaptable people to create agile organisations rather than a ‘steady state’ mentality.

If you are behind the curve, consider hiring an interim

Interims are sensibly over-qualified and can hit the ground running. The average executive will take several months to get up to speed whereas an interim will have a track record of change and transformation where they can apply their learning and experience to your organisation.

This blog was written by Lee De Souza, the Founder and Managing Director of Harrison Bridge.

Lee has delivered over 200 recruitment searches in the UK & Internationally including volume projects and recruiting entire executive teams and board positions.

If you would like to discuss how to find the best talent for your organisation.

Contact Lee De Souza - [email protected]