In\r\na highly competitive corporate world you need to start thinking in a more\r\ninnovative way, if you want to have an edge over your competitors. If you don’t\r\ndo it, someone else will do it, it’s just a matter of time! What might be\r\nconsidered as ‘great’ today, might become ordinary and ‘standard’ tomorrow. If\r\nthat is the case, do you always know what further steps to take in order to\r\nkeep your leading position?
"},"body":{"body":"In\r\na highly competitive corporate world you need to start thinking in a more\r\ninnovative way, if you want to have an edge over your competitors. If you don’t\r\ndo it, someone else will do it, it’s just a matter of time! What might be\r\nconsidered as ‘great’ today, might become ordinary and ‘standard’ tomorrow. If\r\nthat is the case, do you always know what further steps to take in order to\r\nkeep your leading position?
Imagine\r\nyou need to hire a person who has an outstanding creative mind. I’m thinking of\r\nsomeone who does ordinary things very differently, who is always in search of\r\ndifferentiation and knows exactly how to stand out from the crowd. The person\r\nneeds to be: curious, flexible, embrace change, look at things from different\r\nperspectives, come up with fresh solutions for tricky challenges, discover new\r\nopportunities that others don’t see, take the initiative and keen on making a\r\ndifference. When it comes to creative skills we need to distinguish: 1) the\r\nskill to design something very creatively in a visual way (e.g. a logo,\r\nwebsite, corporate brochure, product etc.) and 2) the skill of being able to\r\nsolve corporate problems in a creative way. How are you going to test and\r\nassess a candidate’s creative skills when it comes to “thinking outside the\r\nbox?”
Here\r\nare three ideas.
Idea 1 – The\r\ncreative CV.
Invite\r\npotential candidates to apply for the job with an original, creative CV. I’m\r\nnot talking of the standard hardcopy CV, but something truly eye-catching. No limits\r\nshould therefore be given with regard to the CV’s format and outlook. There\r\nhave been candidates who created their CV in form of a leaflet or infographic,\r\nor who printed their CV on a t-shirt or billboard, who produced an attention\r\ngrabbing video, etc. If the job position is in the creative industry, it would\r\nsurely give you a first impression about the candidate’s skillset. Bear in mind\r\nthat this approach would be less relevant for a position in other industries,\r\nsuch as the Finance or other sectors.
Idea 2 – Asking\r\ncompetency-based interview questions.
Once\r\ncandidates are being invited for an interview, ask them competency-based interview\r\nquestions with regard to their creative-thinking skills. Consider the\r\nfollowing:
Idea 3 – Giving some\r\ncreative challenges.
Share\r\nwith your candidates a problem that the company is currently facing and let\r\nthem come up with an original solution. This will give them the opportunity to\r\nshow to what extent they are creative problem solvers. You could tackle this\r\ntask in different ways: 1) You tell them the problem in advance and they can\r\nprepare for it in their own time at home. Once they turn up to the interview,\r\nthey can present you their solution. 2) You tell them the problem during the\r\ninterview only. You wait and see how quickly they can think on their own feet\r\nin a creative way. 3) You invite them to a group assessment in which they need\r\nto come up with a great solution as a team. The disadvantage of this approach would\r\nobviously be that it would be more difficult to assess an individual’s\r\ncontribution. However, at the same time it allows you to test peoples’ team\r\nworking skills. 4) You give them two unrelated things and see with what new\r\nthings they are able to come up with.
Candidates\r\nshould be challenged in multiple ways, not just with one single task. The\r\nresult of one task might not truly reflect the real potential of a candidate.\r\nIt would be a more insightful and revealing experience for the Recruiter if\r\ncandidates would be exposed to various scenarios. The candidate who is able to\r\nimpress in all given challenges should be the real winner for the job. This\r\nwould make the hiring decision for the recruiter so much easier.
One\r\nmore time, nowadays it is not sufficient for a company to just have people\r\ndoing their jobs as expected. It takes creativity and innovation in order to\r\nbecome a true leader in any particular industry. The benefit of hiring creative\r\npeople is that they will help the company to reach newer heights and improve\r\nthe organisation’s bottom line dramatically, if opportunities are being\r\nprovided to think outside the box.
"},"authorName":"Karin Schroeck-Singh","authorBio":{"authorBio":"Karin Schroeck-Singh is a passionate Public Speaker, eBook Author, and a freelancing Online Content Producer. She has an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK) and gained 18 years of international work experience in Italy, the UK and India."},"publishedOn":"2015-09-25T12:08:03.530Z"}},"pageContext":{"id":"cc064e32-efcf-504a-b786-9648d1f777c0"}}, "staticQueryHashes": []}