The mean of meanness, the median of performance and the mode of teamwork. Why Recruitment is an art form of Statistics.

The mean of meanness

I recently caught up with a colleague of mine from more than 4 years ago, we remained in contact after parting from the sales industry, she was a very dear mentor of mine who I disliked initially for her directness and unsophisticated method of teaching. She terrorised ignorance and her righteousness were undebatable in any situation.

When I looked back from who I was 4 years ago with the judgement that I have now, I realised that my dislike was not her righteousness or her unsophisticated tact, it was my perceived reaction and entitlement that was truly apathetic to her time and skill. Luckily, we both gave each other a chance and when her expertise and talent ripened enough, she was handpicked for management.

I was her protégé, that same woman I disliked was the one who pulled me out of my desk and offered to manage me, introduced me to goal setting and why playing by the rule book is a guaranteed success. She later stoop down from her position as it was apparent that her rigid style was very unpopular to the formalness of the board. ?When she came back, I was on an even ground with my mentor and we raced, competed, and challenged each other everyday and conquered feats in our space. I became better because she taught me better, but I had to be my best because I knew she would make me eat her dust if I faltered.

She went to Insurance, and I went to the Mining Resources Sector, she took her skill set and broke glass ceilings within her first year, in just two years, she has managed to score three promotions and held her position as the top in state and the top 7 within the country. She kept her style the same and found an organisation and team that flourished and valued it. In fact, she rewrote history when she got her last promotion as it took an average of 10 years to reach that aspect of the business in their eco-system.

We all know that a shark will never outgrow its environment, but have we given a single thought of what if it does? Her story is a classic tale of a shark outgrowing its environment. She grew faster than the average time within her company’s ecosystem and became the shark that was big and ferocious to a lot of employees beneath her. She is now planning to jump ship and call her time with her current employer. The reason? She is simply unhappy and unappreciated, she’s rubbing shoulders with people who have been in their position for more than a decade and while she was the best in sales, her new promotion is not sales orientated.

As a recruiter, when we ask the question of growth to our candidates, how seriously do we take and factor it?

Recruiters are match-makers - the process of matching skill sets to a job description, and the right people with the right employer is a common goal amongst all recruiters. The basic unit of success and project-delivery is to deliver the right talents for the right job with the right employer.

When I initially started working in recruitment, this was my favourite question to ask “Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?” I dare not finish it with their answer and make them expound this item until I can feel the warmth of their sincerity to their personal commitment. As a recruiter, I felt obligated to make them realise where they envision themselves and as I grew more confident to the role - I started giving them advice and tips in how they can best position themselves to achieve their career goals.

The median of Performance

I would like to connect this by introducing another retrospection. One of my positive experience from the many job Interviews I sat reads below.

"They talk about their team and not their selves. They understand that it is the people from all levels of the organisation that ultimately produces the results."

The best job interviews that I’ve sat in my experience are the ones where team managers can solidly paint a picture of their team as a whole by expounding on every individuals skillset and ambition factor. They understand the key elements of teamwork and pragmatically factor each team members skill set and what they look to achieve within the teams limited resources.

It’s important in recruitment that we use our analytical skills to make sense of our job specifications, when I look at a job scope, I visualise the production team at play before I start digging my pool of talents. By visualising what my candidates are walking into, I can at least give a decent picture of what the job is and how I can see them fitting with their skill set and work values. Obviously, this takes time as the more time you spend resourcing with an account the better you can visualise what is happening as by then you will have a generous amount of feedback from both your clients and your candidates.

Going back to my friend who have been successful but recently unsatisfied with her team, we can infer that her usual median of performance does not match her promotion, her team mates have been in the company for more than 10 years and have adapted to hybrid productivity where everything that they do is almost second nature to their job.

Alone, she feels despair and a misfit, she bears a bigger responsibility that is prestigious and were with the creme of the crop team and yet she feels no sense of belongingness nor similarity. She competes with no one to compete but herself. I remember a time in school where I was part of a decorated debate team and felt that I was not faring well initially with students who have been member for years. Organisations especially in traditional industries and setting like my debate team still holds a sense of earned elitism. You have to earn your years, your commitment, and medals and all you get in return is a seat on the table.

The mode of Teamwork

Definitions from the Oxford language define mode in many settings spanning from computing, fashion, physics, statistics, logic, and music in fact its universal application is one that takes meaning in many shapes and forms but the main point is mode can be seen in a lot of practical applications and in this write-up I wanted to value the word in the context of teamwork.

Think about it, what is the most relevant attribute that you see in your team, can it be a sense of high ambition, close-knitted values, harmonious flow, or inter-dependency? These are all examples of mode and in bigger settings we can assess this as the driving force of team culture.

The most recurrent modes that I have seen in my Industry are ambitiousness, tenacity, and inquisitiveness. It’s a very common trait to possess with the number of recruiters I have met across the business. That’s the beauty of mode, you can almost homogenise the many soft skills found in your pool and capitalise your development from it.

In example, close knitted values mode can benefit from an openly structured workflow where everyone are given the same responsibilities with a common goal that is unified and mirrored towards everyone’s contribution. Harmonious flow mode can benefit from delivering complex and complicated tasks because everyone understands that their piece of work is a piece of the puzzle. There are many examples of mode and how we can infer from them. These are only examples that I’ve seen in my Industry.

When my friend decided to be the best in her new promotion, she failed to rationalise that her new team is the backbone and security of the business in charge of final decision making, and that she will ultimately bear the hammer in observing the strictness and conservativeness of the Insurance industry. In short, her mode remained unchanged in what already was a changed circumstance.

As we concluded our catch-up I left her with my favourite piece of line to encourage her "You can always put a price in talent, but you can never put a price in happiness"

In my next write-up I will discuss the productivity techniques I observed effective in my role. I hope to hear your feedback and support from this #RecruitmentLife writeup, please inMail me with suggestions and questions that can be delegated in this platform.