Out with Titles, In with Impact.
For too long, businesses have relied on fancy job titles to attract and screen candidates. "Senior Vice President" or "Head of Innovation" may sound impressive, but what do they really tell you about a person's ability to do the job? In today's dynamic market, this old-school approach is a liability. It's time to shift our focus from a candidate's previous title to the actual impact they can create.
The Problem with Hiring for Titles
A job title is a snapshot, not a whole story. It's a quick label that can be misleading and often fails to reflect the true scope of a person's work. Consider a "Marketing Manager" at a large corporation compared to a "Marketing Manager" at a start up. Their responsibilities, skills, and daily tasks could be worlds apart. The former might oversee a large team, while the latter might be an all rounder responsible for everything from content creation to campaign analytics. By fixating on titles, you risk filtering out a highly skilled individual with a non traditional career path who might be a perfect fit. This narrow view limits your talent pool and can lead to hiring the wrong person for the role. It can also create an internal hierarchy based on a perceived status rather than actual contribution, hindering collaboration and innovation.
The Power of Hiring for Impact
Hiring for impact means looking at a candidate's proven results and future potential. It’s about understanding what they’ve achieved, the problems they’ve solved, and how their skills can directly benefit your business. This approach is more inclusive, unbiased, and leads to better, longer term hires. It’s a skills first strategy that prioritises demonstrable abilities over traditional proxies like education or a fancy job history.
How to Shift Your Focus
The transition from hiring for titles to hiring for impact requires a fundamental rethink of your entire recruitment process.
Rewrite Job Descriptions for Outcomes: Don't just list tasks. Instead, focus on the outcomes you expect the successful candidate to deliver. What specific problems will this person solve? What will success look like in this role after 90 days or six months? For example, instead of writing "manage social media accounts," an outcome based description would be "grow social media following by 20% and increase engagement rates by 15% to boost brand visibility." This provides a clear purpose and helps candidates understand the value they are expected to bring.
Implement Structured and Behavioural Interviews: Move away from generic, unstructured interviews. Use behavioural questions to get concrete examples of past impact. Ask candidates to describe a time they overcame a challenge, the steps they took, and the result. This reveals their problem solving abilities, adaptability, and capacity to deliver results. For consistency and fairness, use a scoring rubric to objectively evaluate responses against pre determined criteria.
Utilise Skills based Assessments: A practical test or a small project relevant to the role is an invaluable tool. It provides a direct measure of a candidate's capabilities and shows you what they can do, not just what they say they can do. For a writer, this might be a short writing task. For a developer, a coding challenge. These assessments are excellent predictors of on the job performance and help you identify talent from diverse backgrounds who may not have a traditional resume.
Building a Results Driven Culture
When you hire for impact, you signal to your entire team that results matter more than status. This encourages a culture of ownership and accountability. Employees are motivated by the chance to make a real difference, not just to climb the corporate ladder. The focus moves to meaningful work and measurable contributions, leading to greater engagement, higher productivity, and better business outcomes.
Create a Smarter Hiring Process
Ready to move beyond titles and start hiring for genuine impact? Our human resources consulting services can help you overhaul your recruitment process, from crafting outcome focused job descriptions to implementing effective skills based assessments. Contact us today to create a hiring strategy that attracts the best talent and drives real business success.