Apr 1st 2022

There’s not a talent shortage, you’re just not looking in the right place…

How to spot potential in junior candidates

Whilst many businesses may be feeling the pressure to hire experienced team members, we believe that the stats on talent shortage are strongly correlated with the amount of organisations overlooking the potential in junior candidates.

Our previous article explored soft skills and the significance of recruiting for potential over experience. Research suggests that 75% of companies are struggling to recruit due to a skills shortage, but would this be the case if those companies looked at filling roles with junior talent who are hungry to learn and kick off their careers? With 8 out of 10 employers stating ‘soft skills’ are more important to a company’s success than ever, could investing in early careers be the answer to the skills shortage after all?

In our recent webinar, Spotting Potential: How to make brilliant junior hires, we learned from two HR experts including Tempo’s CEO Ben Chatfield and Alex Williams, Director of People at EngageTech on how to recognise talent in junior candidates. Here are our top three takeaways from the event: 

1. Nail your key attributes

When assessing key attributes in junior talent, there is no guaranteed list that will predict whether a candidate is going to be a great fit for the role as they will be different from industry to industry. Director of People at EngageTech, Alex Williams described the key qualities she looks for when determining brilliant junior talent; “We found it was much better to hire candidates that are accountable, open to feedback and have a desire to work hard.”

She also pointed out the importance of assessing candidates based on how well they align with the values of their business “Does this person believe in the values and the vision of the company? Do they understand what we do? Do they understand what part they are playing in the company?”

Tempo CEO Ben Chatfield agreed on aligning values and mentioned how it’s important to build in expectations when hiring. “If someone is in the early stage of their career, what we really look out for is how they envisage the role. What are going to be the steepest learning curves? What are they going to take-to naturally? What do they think they are going to spend their time doing? And just making sure that those expectations are aligned.”

“Looking at past success is always a good indicator for future hires.”

When it comes to hiring juniors based on particular key attributes, both Tempo and EngageTech have set in place various activities to ensure consistency and continuous improvement across hiring practices. Alex stated how imperative it is to review historically successful hires. “At EngageTech we run sessions each quarter to go through each hire. Looking at past success is always a good indicator for future hires. What has worked in the past? What skills and traits do your current top performers have? What do they have in common? It gives us a great indicator of green and red flags.” 

Ben also stressed how crucial it is for employers to set out an initial framework that breaks down what qualities you are looking for in a potential junior candidate. “Why hiring based on potential is so exciting, is because it gives the broadest possible people opportunities to prove themselves. On paper they may not be as good as someone else, but in the role they may be brilliant! It’s all about nailing those key attributes at the beginning.”

2. Avoid ‘gut-feel’ and challenge your ‘cultural fit’

No matter your company’s size, it’s crucial to implement an effective strategy that ensures a fair hiring process and avoids common traps. 

“Going off gut feel is completely intangible, it doesn’t make any sense and is highly unfair on the candidate.

Hiring based on intuition is acknowledging you are making decisions based on emotion rather than rationale. Alex highlighted the importance of not going with your gut and what hiring managers can do to minimise the urge to do this. “Going off gut feel is completely intangible, it doesn’t make any sense and is highly unfair on the candidate. Creating a clear hiring skills matrix and ideal scoring requirements across all of these, as well as designing clear questions that will elicit particular answers, should alleviate that so that candidates are being measured on the same yardstick.” 

Another hiring challenge Alex mentioned that hiring managers may find themselves relating to is trying to find a candidate that matches the workplace culture rather than the company’s values. “When I joined EngageTech, I challenged what the term ‘culturally fit’ meant. A better phrase which we use now is ‘values fit’ and we see how a candidate aligns with our company values, rather than, for example, making an assumption on someone who supports the same football team or has a similar personality to you.”

Ben emphasised the value of briefing hiring managers about the candidate beforehand. “Give the hiring process its due attention. Ultimately, it is the most important thing companies do. Make sure hiring managers are assessing people in the right way. It can’t be rushed.”

3. What are your non-negotiables

Non-negotiables are traits, expectations or other factors that your junior candidate should possess in order to get hired. They provide clarity and direction when it comes to your experience as an employer.

Alex provided some insight into her non-negotiables, she pointed out that preparation is key “A lack of preparation is something I find extremely frustrating, as it is totally within the candidates control. We also provide quite a bit of preparation in the email provided beforehand, so they know exactly what they need to do. There is really no excuse.”

Ben added, “It’s a tricky balance. Often people are inexperienced and you want to support them and you want them to do well, but you don’t want a candidate to be so prepped that they put on an ‘interview performance’ rather than be themselves.”

Alex went on to discuss how candidates who can demonstrate strong self awareness fit the bill “The inability to be self-critical or reflect on your weaknesses or failures are red flags. Also, being a ‘perfectionist’ is not an answer.” 

Start on your junior talent journey…

In a highly competitive and candidate driven market, hiring the best junior talent can be tough. 

Alex dove into how she gathers the best junior candidates, “To attract top talent, you need to spread the net as much as possible. You do have to accept that the top of your hiring funnel is going to be extremely wide, and that obviously takes a lot of time – this is hard work but it’s definitely worth it.” 

You may also need to use your powers of influence on the mindset of hiring managers or companies to support hiring for potential over experience. Alex’s suggestion of “Being able to push back and have that conversation early on is key to setting the scene. Explaining how difficult the market is at the moment and how candidate driven it is, should support your message.” Fundamentally though, investing in potential over experience is a strong business move as these candidates provide company wide benefits such as engagement, as they feel they’ve been invested in, retention, curiosity and an active learning approach. It’s important to challenge the ‘tried and tested’ method and tap into more diverse audiences to avoid limiting the pool of candidates by picking job seekers already in that field. “Holding workshops where we spoke about what makes a good candidate and the benefits of soft skills and values fit will really help this message shine through.”        

Want to learn more about what hiring managers in London’s top startups need to look out for when recruiting for potential? Click here to download a copy of our free handbook ‘Essential Soft Skills for Startups’. 

Missed out on the webinar? You can sign up to get instant access to the recording here.