Faced with the need to staff up quickly to carry out a generative AI initiative, Sanjay Srivastava did the logical thing. “We brought in kindergarten teachers to do prompt engineering,” says the chief digital strategist at Genpact, a professional services firm. Although the decision might appear unorthodox, it’s consistent with Srivastava’s fundamental outlook. He is a strong believer in hiring people from a variety of backgrounds who possess a vital trait: the ability to learn.
“My whole view of life is that we cannot know the skills we will need tomorrow. So we need curiosity, humility, and the desire to learn the answers, not to already know them,” he explains. “The people we hired from a very different walk of life worked out the best,” he adds.
Srivastava has discovered what many IT leaders are learning: that in a time of rapid technological change, traditional hiring practices — posting job openings, sifting through reams of resumés for relevant experience, making offers, and waiting for counteroffers — are falling short.
“To stay competitive in the midst of widening IT skills shortages, enterprises must ensure a culture of continuous learning. All employees from entry- to C-level must have the drive and capability to keep learning, to keep stretching,” says Gina Smith, IDC research director, IT skills for digital business.
Melissa Swift, vice president for workforce and organizational change acceleration at Capgemini Invent agrees. “You’re on a conveyor belt. Things move. If you take six months to hire someone, you might only have six months to use those treasured skills,” says Swift, who counsels clients on how to rebuild their workforces to reengineer transformation.
Like Srivastava, Swift asserts that the ability to learn is more valuable than what a person already knows. But finding a “learn-it-all” rather than a “know-it-all” is not a simple matter.
“You have to be willing to tolerate a bit of non-linearity. When you don’t understand how they went from there to here [in their work history], that might be an indicator of learning agility,” she suggests.
Trust Your Gut?
Where seeming intangibles, such as curiosity, are concerned, you might think that gut instinct would play a large role. But, according to Swift, that can lead to bias when hiring managers gravitate to an applicant because they appear outwardly similar to a previously successful hire. When traits are difficult to measure, objectivity becomes more important. Swift recommends carefully evaluating for learning agility. “Look for a test that has been psychologically and statistically validated. It needs to have research-driven rigor,” she advises.
Because the ability to solve business problems is the most desirable trait, Srivastava says interviewers should ask applicants direct questions like, “Tell me about three problems you ran into and how you solved them.” He says interviewers should seek affirmative answers to these questions: “Are you seeking insights from others? Are you interrogating data? Are you testing your own hypotheses or assumptions? Are you fundamentally reexamining your point of view?”
Hidden Passions, Overlooked Winners
Swift says unusual passions outside of work can be a tip-off to learning agility. “Are they into reading about Teddy Roosevelt? Do they like crochet or horseback riding?” She adds that some jobs, like sales and teaching, inculcate traits such as the ability to think positively and communicate clearly that pay off in many different fields.
She also advises looking closely at a company’s current employees, some of whom may have the requisite learning agility but remain undiscovered because of the penchant of hiring managers to look outside for talent. “It’s the shiny object syndrome. Internal talent pools are chronically neglected,” says Swift.
And internal employees who don’t call attention to themselves could be overlooked difference-makers. “Look for introverts; there is something in our culture that does not value introversion,” she says. In her experience, one woman was very introverted in meetings, but afterward would come up with ideas that were clearly “better and smarter” than what other team members offered.
It’s Not About the Money
There are cases in which hiring for potential can generate significant savings. Data science, for example, is an area in which experts are demanding, and getting, inflated salaries. “People are asking seven figures; however, you might be able to upskill people into those roles,” says Swift.
While some might think that hiring for potential would save money compared with hiring the person with the longest resumé, Srivastava says cost savings are beside the point. “What is the opportunity cost of having the wrong person on the job? If you’re not going to be part of the new economy, you have already lost the game. I would change the metrics of how we measure success from the cost of compensation to the opportunity cost of missing the next wave.”
Srivastava has learned the lessons of outside-the-box hiring from first-hand experience — his own. “I never went to school to become a CDO,” he says. Born in India, he studied aerospace engineering, then moved to the U.S. to take a sales job. However, he decided to become a technology entrepreneur, building several startups that were acquired.
GenAI is a perfect example of a technology that seemingly came out of nowhere, he says, a harbinger of future transformational waves that will make today’s expertise obsolete. “The skills we will need for the future, we don’t know what they are,” says Srivastava. “Look at prompt engineering. Who knew we would have to hire for it?”
Learn how three IT organizations are modernizing their skills and talent development practices.
