Transform Your Company: Hire Game-Changers

Marcianne Kuethen

May 6, 2013

Many years ago, the first Amtec computer was so bulky, it took up 8 or 9 square feet of our office administrator’s office. When the FAX machine came out, we all marveled at the idea of how quickly a resume could now be sent to a customer. Our founder at the time just couldn’t see the sense of paying for such a newfangled machine. But Scott, a young employee, grasped the time-saving possibilities and kept pushing and pushing until finally, Amtec’s work area finally sported that new FAX machine. Scott is the kind of employee we call a game-changer, without whom Amtec might still find itself in darker ages!

Randall Birkwood, a long-time recruiter, agrees. He says, “A game changer is a person who thinks outside the box and approaches problems differently from the rest of us. They approach problems with passion, a unique perspective, and their thinking inspires others to build on their ideas.”

If your company’s progress and performance are mediocre and you’re not seeing the results you want, perhaps you’re still hiring based on standard interview processes and not focusing on individual attributes that will help you pull in the stuperstars. Birkwood suggests 5 ways to modify your hiring process:

1. Craft a position description that pinpoints achievements, not just technical requirements.
2. Build recruiting strategies that focus on finding people who’ve achieved something meaningful in previous workplaces.
3. Rewrite your interview questions to assess for diversity of thought, common sense, intelligence, and work ethic, not just experience and skills.
4. Present your candidates with real challenges to draw them in.
5. Keep them engaged by ongoing challenges and getting out of their way.

If your organization isn’t experiencing the progress you desire, consider hiring a game-changer! (Read the full article here.) But be careful–if you hire a visionary like Scott, he or she may end up owning the company!