Council Post: Now Is The Ideal Time To Focus On Hiring For Corporate Innovation

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Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos once said, “What’s dangerous is not to evolve.”

Change is constant, and companies that cling to the old ways of doing things may find themselves out of business one day. There’s a powerful force at work called “creative destruction,” which we’ve seen many times over the years, where an outdated product or technology is blown up to make way for the next iteration. Think of how the telegraph preceded landline telephones, which gave way to cellphones, followed by the emergence of mobile devices. Or, consider how entire companies have disappeared because they failed to adapt and innovate, like Circuit City or Blockbuster Video.

The same is true about workforce planning. The old ways are increasingly proving to be inadequate in today’s business environment, where competition can be fierce and companies are compelled to innovate to survive.

Ditch The Script

Given current market dynamics and whispers of an economic downturn, the temptation for many employers may be to tighten their belts and consider downsizing their workforce.

Given the importance of remaining competitive and focusing on innovation to grow your business in 2020 and beyond, it’s time to rethink that approach. Instead of keeping the status quo on hiring or reducing staff, now may be the ideal time to reevaluate hiring objectives and your needs using the buy-build-borrow model. Where do you need to hire full-time employees (i.e., buy)? Are there positions that would be better filled by developing talent from within (i.e., build)? Are there special projects that would be best completed by contingent staff (i.e., borrow)? Each element in the buy-build-borrow model has advantages and disadvantages for driving experimentation and innovation in your organization. According to Jeff Bezos, “If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.” That doesn’t mean double your staff, of course. However, adding the right mix of buy-build-borrow staffing to increase experimentation can be very powerful for your business growth.

Forward-thinking companies use the fourth and first quarters in the calendar year to hire and train contingent, project-based workers and permanent employees to increase business productivity and stay ahead of the competition. In other words, ditch the script on traditional hiring practices to embrace a mindset that sees value in all workstyles to help drive innovation in your organization.

The Three B’s

Many companies are taking the buy-build-borrow approach to the next level, leveraging the model to foster and encourage experimentation with the goal of increasing organizational agility. They recognize that creativity doesn’t flourish until the right people are in the right roles. To this end, they engage special project teams to enhance their human resource capabilities.

In this model, the team — a specialized work group with a variety of skills — may be responsible for achieving a specific business goal and charged with rotating the right people in and out of the organization to ignite innovation. For example, the team could look at roles, responsibilities and org charts and recommend where innovation incubators should be established. They might also develop a list of required core competencies or nominate employees who have the necessary skills and would be productive and thrive in their newly assigned areas.

It Starts At The Top

Management plays an important role here. Most talent acquisition processes have been designed to fit hierarchical structures, viewing successful applicants as puzzle pieces that are inserted into their appropriate slots by hiring managers and HR. What if talent was treated as the end user, and leaders aimed to provide a better user experience for employees? This requires a reimagining of the purpose of leadership and a deliberate reevaluation of a company’s corporate mission and values.

Effective leaders apply what they know from their experiences to the way they structure teams, foster curiosity, encourage trial and error, and provide feedback, ultimately offering a much better employee experience.

Removing the constraints of risk aversion to position a company to grow through innovation is an active process that can be launched now. Investing in an expanded buy-build-borrow model can be an effective way to bring the right talent into your organization to experiment, which in turn will drive the type of innovation that will keep your company from falling victim to creative destruction.