Kurt Heikkinen has led start-up and large companies through technology product launch to serve rapidly emerging markets, and he is currently the CEO of at Forj and former CEO of Modern Hire.
Hiring is changing, and candidates are changing, but the world goes on. The key to making sense of it all is data and analytics.
Picking the right candidate to hire is important to any business, but the old ways of hiring aren’t cutting it anymore. Too much bias and too much non-important information passes through. Kurt Heikkinen thinks that fundamentally, what employers need is a new perspective.
Heikkinen, the former Chief Executive Officer of Modern Hire, has unique insight, owing to his 20-year tenure working with enterprise software within the talent management and SaaS domains. Thanks to technology, Heikkinen is disrupting HR departments and CHROs while reframing the hiring and recruitment process. And he does it with an ease that belies how much he’s thought about it.
MY DAUGHTER IS in COLLEGE. IN JUST A FEW YEARS SHE’LL BE INTERVIEWING FOR HER FIRST PROFESSIONAL JOB. SHE’S A DIGITAL NATIVE. TALKING ON THE PHONE MEANS TEXTING. A FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEW COULD MEAN A VIDEO INTERVIEW. COMPANIES NEED TO THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT ENGAGING THE MODERN CANDIDATE AND CREATING A JOB-RELEVANT ASSESSMENT AND INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE. IT’S GOT TO BE ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE, AND THERE’S GOT TO BE SCIENCE BEHIND IT.
Ultimately, he believes companies can break away from traditional metrics and interview strategies, while identifying the wealth of talented candidates in the workforce.
Be Open to Unconventional Interview Options
Everyone knows the dreaded default interview: back and forth questions via phone and in person. But that doesn’t offer enough of a picture of the candidate or enough of a range of communication with them. Heikkinen recommends being open to new types of interview experiences.
Even interviews via text message are possible, and sometimes preferable now. While employers might not make a final decision based on that, it’s a good initial engagement that gives unique insights that allow companies to continue mapping a whole constellation of candidates.
The Problem with One-Click Applying
Almost no one wants to deal with the problem of sifting through a literal or digital pile of applications. To avoid this, one question must take precedent above all others—does the candidate actually want the job? Even if they applied, that’s not a given. Heikkinen estimates people are applying for multiple jobs, and when it comes to a large percentage of those jobs, people will realize they just aren’t interested.
Part of the problem is that job descriptions haven’t changed much over the years, explained Heikkinen. They’re long. They’re boring. They’re tedious. And sometimes the candidates don’t even know where to apply. On the flip side, recruiters are taxed, which can reflect badly on the company doing the hiring.
Because the ease in which people can apply for jobs, especially using services like Indeed and LinkedIn, he believes it’s worth figuring out whether the person truly wants the job, or is merely trying to toss their hat in the ring and figure it out later.
What Employers are Really Looking For
The world is changing, as are employers, and Heikkinen sees it happening in real time. Because of this, combined with disruption to the educational system—employers are changing some of their traditional metrics for valuing candidates. Their school? Their GPA? Those parts of a resume might matter less than if a candidate is a teachable fit, according to Heikkinen.
The best way to predict future performance and discover employees who will stay longer is to assess candidates using job simulations, or virtual job tryouts. Using assessments that simulate a “day in the life” gives candidates a front-row seat into what the job will be like and gives companies visibility on how candidates would perform if hired. Companies that deploy a personalized, job-relevant experience, but will only provide a better candidate experience, but will be interviewing those candidates most likely to stay longer.
