June 15, 2020

Is your candidate pipeline missing the best talent?

Steven Levitt, the renowned Harvard and MIT economist and author of Freakonomics, did a study on people who were perplexed to make a significant life change, e.g., looking for a new job, getting engaged, or divorced. The results: those who made the giant life change were much happier than those who remained stuck. But here is the best part, the decision to turn their life upside down was not after a thoughtful process considering second and third outcomes, they made the leap based on a coin flip. Levitt asked people who were on the fence to flip a coin over whether they would become engaged, end a marriage, or change jobs – heads you make the change, tails you do not change and remain status quo. Levitt used his Freakonomics Podcast and FreakonomicsExperiment.com to attract 22,000 participants and received about 13,000 surveys, following up on their level of happiness over the next six months. Here is the link to his working paper report. https://www.nber.org/papers/w22487

Levitt: “People may be excessively cautious when facing life-changing choices. If you are torn between adventure and stasis – between doing something and nothing – take the adventure. Odds are you will be happier for it.” 

“So there’s a status quo bias. Let’s just say of thousands of people making big real-world decisions we find that the changers, the ones who shake up the status quo, do better. Well, if that’s true, then that’s a really important message because what that means is whenever you’re on the margin, you should have a default rule, which is I go for the change.”

The enlightenment from the experiment is not that we should be flipping our lucky silver dollar to determine our decisions. Still, it sheds light on people’s tendency to resist change at the expense of happiness. The idea of changing jobs might sound like an exciting adventure and a terrifying experience at the same time. Fear is commonly the winning emotion at an expensive cost. We are willing to suffer while drudging our way, trying to protect the idea of certainty that usually does not exist at the level we perceive.

List your top 3 favorite restaurants, your top 3 vacation locations, the top 3 universities you hope your children attend.

Now, name off the top 3 companies that would be best for furthering your career.

Few people can answer the last question, yet it might be the most critical question to reach your personal and professional goals.

Why does the best talent pool remain distant from the hiring company’s recruiting activities? Generally speaking, candidates and hiring leaders do not have a network of relationships to overcome the fear of the known surrounding, making a career change.

Career certainty does not exist, but at Misura Group, the combination of our network, process, and commitment to lifelong relationships helps candidates de-risk job changes by understanding the opportunities open to them. Our role in pre-scouting cultural alignment, career path growth, compensation valuation, and attention to confidentiality creates a smoother transition and higher probability of success.

Hiring leaders, is your candidate pipeline missing the best talent?  Embrace the limitations of your network and connectivity reach. Know the difference between an average and top-level performer, and how that compares to your existing talent pool. Our one focus is connecting with top performers in the building materials industry, which provides the ability to elevate the quality of any talent pool. Contact the Misura Group team, and we can give you the support to raise your hiring standards.

Hire Smarter – Tony