CATALYST Issue 4 | Page 30

D Dexterity | Catalyst recognise the dexterity that organisations need to compete,” he explains. “Think hiring a ‘chief growth officer’ rather than ‘sales and marketing director’. Many of the critical ‘skills’ needed are in fact behaviours – emotional intelligence or a growth mindset, for example. Strong functional skills are the entry ticket.” There are, of course, challenges associated with moving to new models of hiring. “Many organisations see the upsides, but few are able to execute,” says Miller. “Often they are frustrated by internal policy and processes, meaning they can’t recruit talent because it doesn’t fit snugly into a job description that has been rubber-stamped.” “If people demonstrate the right behaviours and are willing to learn, we can offer training that’s going to help them grow” alexandermannsolutions.com 30 It can also be hard for organisations to identify future needs, because this is inherently difficult and/ or their people lack time for such strategic thinking. “It’s not just a case of thinking about the next three years and which capabilities are scarce, but also asking ‘which skills do we already have in the organisation that we don’t know about, how can we do an external scan for those skills, conduct gap analysis scenario planning, and then bridge those gaps by taking action’,” says Shilpa Shah, director, global talent acquisition and candidate experience at GE Healthcare. “This is something we want to explore in 2020.” It’s vital that this isn’t seen as an HR or recruitment decision, but one involving the whole business, points out Dryer. She believes organisations often already have the talent they need within existing teams, but opt to hire in fresh talent by default rather than drawing on their people’s transferable skills or training them up. “Companies don’t know what to do other than look outside for that talent,” she says. “That’s something almost every hirer I’ve spoken to in the past year has been trying to resolve.” Where companies hire for characteristics and potential rather than specific skills, they must be prepared to invest in training for these recruits, to