the cost of riskless hiring

As job descriptions become more prescriptive and HR departments try to minimize churn, the result is a narrowing definition of qualified.

In his book Range, David Epstein quotes Abbie Griffin and her colleagues’ research into serial innovators:

A mechanistic approach to hiring, while yielding highly reproducible results, in fact reduces the numbers of high-potential [for innovation] candidates.

Risk mitigation is important, but it’s also important to remember it’s not costless. While well-defined, specialized jobs can create a clean target against which to evaluate candidates, they can screen out potentially high performing employees.

It’s a lesson finance learned long ago: by limiting the downside of a transaction, upside is capped.

Related Reading

• David Epstein’s Range
• The Origins Of The Job Interview