left brain right brainGabriela Pinto/Flickr

If you’re just looking for a job, or looking for just reasonably qualified people to fill these jobs, using a left-brain, rules-based process might be adequate. However, if you’re looking for a better job, or a better person to fill that job, the standard-left brain process is worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. In this case, switching on your right brain might open the doors to opportunities and people never before considered. Here are some ideas on why this idea is so important.

Think Backwards: Reverse the Traditional Hiring Process

As shown in the graphic, the typical hiring process involves a sequence of four steps: HAVE-GET-DO-BECOME. Here’s the short explanation:

Step 1: What the candidate needs to HAVE in terms of skills, experiences and academics. It's what's included on the job description. Candidates are filtered based on how well their resumes match the requirements. Some of the best people are also excluded who don't fit the "must have" mold.

Step 2: Once the candidate is contacted additional filtering takes place based on what the candidate GETs on the day the person starts — a job, a title, a location, a compensation package, and a company. Recruiters and candidates alike decide to proceed based on these criteria. Both could lose out by using short-term information and assumptions to make long-term decisions.

Step 3: What the person hired actually will be DOING in the first six months to one year. This is the work itself, the culture, the team, and the impact the person can make. The best people emphasize this aspect of an offer when comparing opportunities. Few companies describe this in enough detail, losing good people as a result.

Step 4: What the person can BECOME if the DOING is done well. This is the future opportunity inherent in the job. For the best candidates, it's a critical component of their decision. In fact, if it’s big enough, it can offset some of the GETTING, including the location.

Most left-brained hiring processes are designed from left to right, weeding out the unqualified candidates and force-fitting those that remain into a pre-defined job. A right-brained, more creative process is designed from right to left. Its purpose is to attract the best by emphasizing what the person will be DOING and could BECOME. In this way what the person GETs is not a filter to engage in a conversation, but part of a balanced negotiation. A right-brain hiring process also opens up the door to more people who not only can do the work, but are motivated by it. This includes more minority, diversity and high-potential candidates who have a different mix of skills and experiences.

Think Talent Scarcity vs. Talent Surplus

The traditional default left-to-right hiring process begins by posting a skills-infested job description. This process will only work in a talent surplus situation where there is an excess supply of good people available. It also assumes that the best, fully-qualified people are willing to take lateral transfers. This alone limits the number of qualified and highly motivated people who apply. Worse, the process won’t work in a talent scarcity situation when the demand for talent outstrips the supply. In this case, an "attract the best" approach is essential. That’s why I argue for job postings that emphasize what the person hired will be learning, doing and becoming, while minimizing the skills to the bare essentials. Here’s a sample job posting we ran for a controller a few years ago with this right brain advertising concept embedded in the ad.

Think “What's In it for the Candidate”

In a talent scarcity situation, the best candidates always have multiple opportunities. Unless they’re driven by an economic need, most will assess an offer based not just on what they GET, but also on what they’ll be DOING, and what they could BECOME if successful. They might even consider a relocation if the offer is attractive enough, especially if it provides the person an opportunity to accelerate his or her personal growth. This could be a very important negotiating point for people who have not seen much progress in the past few years.

Focusing on how the best people decide to engage with a company, evaluate career opportunities and negotiate offers needs to be the default hiring process, not an after-thought or an exception. The traditional "what's in it for the company" process precludes companies from even seeing the best people possible, since many will have been filtered out based on what they HAVE or what they GET.

Learn to Drive the Bus — Destination Unknown

In a post last month for LinkedIn’s recruiter blog, I suggested that recruiting people in a talent scarcity situation was similar to driving a bus, but one without a preconceived destination. This relates to one of the themes in Jim Collins’ bestseller Good to Great:


To get the right people on the bus the focus needs to be on what they’ll be doing, learning, and becoming, not what they “must have” or will get. Equally important, neither the recruiter nor prospect should negotiate the destination or the compensation package before going for the drive. This is important, since you'll sometimes change the intended route along the way, or take a detour or two, but that’s what happens when you drive using your right brain. When you arrive you'll be even more surprised — it's exactly where you wanted to go.

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