Talent is not a commodity

Some companies treat their staff as a commodity. You know the symptoms: rigid job titles, detail (although often inaccurate) job descriptions, and a bureaucracy for hiring people. The underlying idea is that people, like any other commodity, can be hired for specific tasks at specific times. The management-speak for this idea is "just in time provisioning of staff".

Unfortunately for the managers, talented individuals are not stocked on shelves. They must be found and recruited. While companies (hiring companies and staffing companies) have built an infrastructure of resumes and keyword searches, the selection of candidates is lengthy and unpredictable. Hiring a good programmer is different from ordering a box of paper.

The "talent is a commodity" mindset leads to the "exact match" mindset. The "exact match" mindset leads hiring managers (and Human Resource managers) to the conclusion that the only person for the job is the "right fit" with the "complete set of skills". It is an approach that avoids mistakes, turning away candidates for the smallest of reasons. ("We listed eight skills for this position, and you have only seven. Sorry, you're not the person for us!")

Biasing your hiring decisions against mistakes means that you lose out on opportunities. It also means that you delay bringing a person on board. You can wait until you find a person with the exact right skills. Depending on the package (and it's popularity), it may take some time before you find the person.

It might take you six months -- or longer -- to find an exact match. And you may never find an exact match. Instead, with a deadline looming, you compromise on a candidate that has skills that are "close enough".

I once had a recruiter from half-way across the country call me, because my resume listed the package GraphViz. GraphViz generates and manipulates network graphs, and while used by lots of people, it is rarely listed on resumes. Therefore, recruiters cannot find people with the exact match to the desired skills -- the keyword match fails.

Of course, when you bring this person on board, you are under a tight schedule. You need the person to perform immediately. They do their best, but even that may be insufficient to learn the technologies and your current system. (Not to mention the corporate culture.) The approach has a high risk of mistakes (low quality deliverable), slow performance (again, a low quality deliverable), cost overruns from overtime (high expenses), and possibly a late delivery.

Let's consider an alternative sequence.

Instead of looking for an exact match, you find a bright programmer who has the ability to learn the specialized skill. Pay that person for a week (or three) to learn the package. Then have them start on integrating the package into your system.

You should be able to find someone in a few weeks, much less than the six months or more for the exact match. (If you cannot find a bright programmer in a week or two, you have other problems.)

Compromising on specific skills (while keeping excellence in general skills) provides some advantages.

You start earlier, which means you can identify problems earlier.

Your costs may be slightly higher, since you're paying for more time. On the other hand, you may be able to find a person at a lower rate. And even at the higher rate, a few months over a long term of employment is not that significant.

You invest in the person (by paying him to learn something new), and the person will recognize that. (You're hiring a clever person, remember?)

You can consider talent as an "off-the-shelf" commodity, something that can be hired on demand. For commonly used skills, this is a workable model. But for obscure skills, or a long list of skills, the model works poorly. Good managers know how and when to compromise on small objectives to meet the larger goals.