What does Talent Search have to do with a streetlight, you might ask…
We’ve all heard the joke about the drunk man searching for his lost keys under a streetlight. When a police officer comes along and asks what he’s looking for, the man explains he lost his keys. After fruitlessly scouring the area illuminated by the streetlight, the officer questions if the man is certain he lost them there. The drunk admits no, he actually lost them in the park across the street. Perplexed, the officer asks why he’s looking for them under the streetlight then. The man’s simple reply? “Because this is where the light is.”
It’s an amusing anecdote that reveals a very human tendency – to look for things in the most obvious, well-lit places even when logic dictates the object of our search must lie elsewhere. While potentially effective for locating dropped keys, this approach represents a costly mistake when applied to talent acquisition. All too often, companies limit their hiring searches to the most convenient sources – their tight circles of colleagues, friends, family members and employee referrals. They’re effectively looking for top candidates where the light is bright, but not necessarily where they’re likely to actually be found.
Lost Keys and Talent: Not Under the Streetlight
The joke illustrates a flawed methodology that frequently plagues organizations during recruitment – an excessive reliance on easily-tapped internal networks at the expense of casting a wider net. Just as the drunk man’s keys certainly weren’t lost under the streetlight, studies show the perfect hire for a role rarely comes from a company’s existing contacts. According to data from Recruiter.com, employee referrals only account for 7% of all hires. Restricting searches to this narrow “lit” area means missing out on 93% of potential applicants.
Brilliant people can be found everywhere – different cities, industries, demographics, experience levels. They could be currently employed but stuck in roles beneath their skill levels. They might be career-changers from non-traditional backgrounds whose expertise transfers surprisingly well. Maybe they’re introverts who don’t socialize in the typical networking circles. Or they simply aren’t connected to your company’s existing employee base. Limiting recruiting to easily-accessible sources like former colleagues ensures missing out on this rich diversity of talent.
Why Widen the Search?
Taking a wider view of the candidate marketplace, even if it requires more effort than the referral post on the company Slack channel, offers immense upsides:
- Diverse Talent Pool
Extending searches beyond one’s immediate network opens the door to fresh perspectives, experiences, and skillsets. This diversity of thought breeds innovation and prevents insular, groupthink-prone teams. Organizations with highly diverse teams have been shown to outperform homogeneous ones by 35%.
- Reduced Bias
Decades of research shows we all hold unconscious biases that can negatively impact hiring decisions. By expanding candidate searches, employers reduce the impact of biases like in-group favoritism, making it easier to objectively assess candidates on merit alone rather than factors like ethnic background or demographic similarities.
- Strategic Advantage
In today’s fast-moving business landscape, agility and disruption are essential. Unearthing individuals from non-obvious backgrounds – whether industry-changers bringing fresh perspectives or specialists with valuable niche skills – keeps companies ahead of the competition.
Talent Search – Expanding the Circle
Avoiding the trap of merely searching where the light shines brightest requires commitment and strategic recruiting practices. Here are some key ways to broaden the talent search:
- Leverage Technology
New AI-powered tools can create more compelling job posts, suggest alternate job titles, or use advanced matching algorithms to scan the broader job market and proactively surface ideal candidate matches outside one’s typical circles. Modern Applicant Tracking Systems can also be used to nurture leads automatically, enhancing candidate experience and leading to referrals outside your immediate connections.
Active and passive candidates alike are disproportionately looking on channels like LinkedIn when seeking new job opportunities. Having a strong, well-defined employer branding presence showcases company culture, values, and employee testimonials to capture their interest from outside the usual networks.
- Refine Sourcing Strategies
Expanding the hiring search requires developing structured, multi-channeled sourcing strategies like those outlined in Coppertree’s Hiring System framework. In addition to employee referrals and posting on job boards, this could include boolean search strings to identify talent across the open web, targeted social media campaigns, building pipelines for future roles, or attending industry events and job fairs.
- Invest in Training
It’s not enough to simply expand sourcing activities – hiring teams must also be equipped with the skills to effectively identify, engage, and sell prospective candidates not already in their network. This could include training on personal branding, social media recruitment strategies, diversity/inclusion hiring practices, and techniques for passive candidate outreach.
The Takeaway
In the classic joke, the drunk man sabotages his own search by restricting it to the one area that’s most illuminated – under the streetlight – rather than the park where his keys are actually lost. He makes this irrational decision because searching under the light requires less effort.
This parable serves as a cautionary tale for recruiters and hiring teams. Looking only where the light shines brightest through leveraging existing employee networks may seem convenient, but it ultimately limits access to top talent. Truly exceptional candidates are seldom found in the most obvious of places.
While employee referrals can be a useful supplemental piece of a hiring strategy, they should not be the primary driver. The key to supercharging workforce capabilities lies in the untapped regions outside one’s typical “circle of light” – passive candidates from diverse backgrounds, career-changers with transferable skills, or rising stars currently trapped at under-appreciative companies. Accessing these candidates requires developing well-rounded recruiting strategies that leverage the combined power of technology, employment branding, structured multi-channel sourcing, and talent analytics.
In short, savvy employers must be willing to venture out from under the comforting glow of the streetlight and into the darkness if they hope to truly locate the keys to assembling world-class teams. Though more effort is required, those who broaden their search will be rewarded with transformative hires possessing the diverse skills and perspectives needed to outmaneuver the competition. The company that limits itself to the streetlight’s reach, meanwhile, will be stuck eternally circling the same areas coming up empty.
So explore beyond your familiar circles. That’s where the true gems are found. Just don’t lose sight of where you dropped the keys in the first place.
