Hiring hubris

Having spent time with talent acquisition leaders and fielded more than a few reference check calls from hiring managers, one thing consistently stands out – the sheer amount of hubris embedded in how organizations think about hiring. One talent acquisition team at one of the world’s largest employers insisted they only hired “the best of the best of the best.” Leaving aside how that sounds – it’s numerically impossible given how many people they hire and how many churn. There simply aren’t that many “best of the bests.” I’ve heard of companies with policies excluding candidates from certain universities, certain companies, certain backgrounds. Everyone wants references – many references. And, in these references, hiring managers want to hire only people who’d be in the top 10% of the best people they’ve ever worked with. It always makes me chuckle – top 10% based on what exactly? Across every role? Every context? Every kind of work? According to whom? The reality is simpler and more…