Hunting Unicorns
Lessons learned from big and small talent searches
Earlier this month, the new Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design, was announced. This comes after the current director, Ric Grefé, steps down at the end of this year after two decades in the role. I was honored to be a part of the eight-member search committee charged with filling this role.
No pressure, right?
I don’t claim to be an expert in recruiting, but I’ve done my share throughout the years. I currently oversee talent and operations at Struck, where we are always looking to grow and build our diverse group of over 50 creative and strategic experts across our three offices.
But how is looking for art directors and copywriters different from looking for the next leader of a 25,000 member organization? Turns out, no matter the size of the search we are all hunting for the perfect candidate. And there are lessons learned that apply to any size of search.
1. There are no unicorns.
During the AIGA director search, there were many, many stakeholders involved. A lot of people are very passionate about the organization and we had some big shoes to fill.
The scale of a search may vary, but typically everyone has something in mind about what will make the perfect candidate. The right skills. The experience. The personality. Add in any efforts in workplace diversity and suddenly you’ve envisioned a candidate so unattainable, he or she may not exist.
Luckily, we did find the perfect candidate with AIGA. And I could argue that everyone at Struck is a perfect little unicorn. But, when searching for candidates, we often set our expectations too high. That doesn’t mean we have to settle, but we need to take time prioritizing what we are looking for. When developing your search criteria, ask yourself these questions:
- What skills/characteristics in your criteria are essential and which would just be nice-to-have?
- Okay, everything is still essential. Remember, if you find a unicorn with all these skills, that’s a huge amount of work! Ask yourself if one person should handle all these items. Do you need to look at separating duties? Can the new hire delegate or outsource some of the other essential items? The candidate may not have experience to execute a certain skill, but they may have the smarts to figure out a new way of tackling it.
- Where one may be lacking in skills or experience, can they make up for with attitude and motivation?
- Still unsure of their skills or experience? Challenge them to do a project to evaluate their skills, or try to work with candidate on a freelance project.
2. Look for zebras
When looking for new employees, we often rely on our connections. While relationships are a powerful way to find strong candidates, it often prevents us from looking outside our circles. At Struck, our community is small and most of our new hires over the years have come from referrals. Our culture is strong and the referral program has been very successful. But programs like these can often limit diversity, as employees typically recommend their friends, peers or previous co-workers.
“75% of agencies rely on referrals from their peers to meet their hiring needs”
– State of Digital Marketing Talent by the Online Marketing Institute
How can you improve diversity and look outside your network? These are some of the things Struck is beginning to incorporate into our recruitment strategy.
- In addition to making diversity a corporate goal, make it a goal in your referral program.
- Ask diverse employees to participate in growing referrals
- Ask current and former diverse employees to identify what your organization has to offer.
- Explore and participate (and recommend others to participate) in events that have high diversity rates.
Employee referral programs can be very successful but they need to be designed to meet your business objectives. If diversity is a company goal, then incorporate it into all recruitment efforts. And don’t forget to measure your results!
3. Grow your own unicorn
These days you can’t go anywhere without hearing about the ever-growing talent gap in our industry. Talent is in high demand. Too often, we are obsessed with finding our unicorn and forget to look at the potential of our current employees.
Earlier this year, we realized how critical it is to invest in growing our people in addition to recruiting. We developed our internal education and training program called Struck Ed, where we strive to promote a culture of learning.
Above all, we are pretty uncomfortable searching for perfect new employees if we aren’t providing opportunities for current employees who have less experience. There are plenty of unicorns waiting to fly!
In the end, whether you’re looking for a large unicorn or small, it’s an employee’s market right now. Most likely, you won’t find the perfect unicorn. And if you do, you probably can’t afford them. It’s essential to look at ways to prioritize your searches and grow your internal team. It’s far better to build a unicorn team of individuals who complement each other than to waste your time searching for the impossible.
Kevin Perry is the Director of Talent and Operations Development at Struck. You can also find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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