How to Hire for Creativity

If you want to build an innovative company, you had better make it your business to find employees who think outside the box.

By Ayubu

Corbis

So many companies profess to seek employees who "think outside the box" that the expression has become one of the biggest clichés in business.

 

So many companies profess to seek employees who "think outside the box" that the expression has become one of the biggest clichés in business. But hiring innovative thinkers poses big challenges. Technical skills and knowledge can be measured; experience, with some persistence, can be verified; but creativity is more mysterious. There's not even complete agreement on what it is.
In business, and for our purposes, let's say that creativity is simply finding new solutions to old problems. In that sense, much work -- or at least much of the best work -- is creative work. Inventing a new product or technology certainly qualifies, but so does coming up with a fresh marketing approach or opening a new sales category. Still, the potential field is not unlimited. Jobs that are heavily structured, with a lot of repetition, generally don't require a lot of creativity, and filling such positions with creative people can leave them, and you, frustrated.
The pages that follow will introduce you to some strategies for bringing innovators on board. It can be time-consuming and expensive to distinguish truly creative people from among your applicant pool. So the most elaborate strategies should be reserved for the most significant hires. "It's most important when it's going to cost you a lot of money if the new hire makes a mistake," says Wendell Williams, managing director of ScientificSelection.com and an employee assessment consultant in Marietta, Georgia.

FINDING INNOVATORS

1. Decide Which Kind of Creativity Counts
Successful hiring for creativity starts with deciding just how much of it you can tolerate. Human resources consultants report that many companies find it difficult to integrate true outside-the-box thinkers. Says Scott Erker, of the Pittsburgh-based HR consultants Development Dimensions International: "What you'll quickly get is a caveat: I need focused creativity, because creativity for creativity's sake doesn't get you anywhere."
One useful way to think about it is to distinguish between what Williams calls breadth creativity, which is the ability to see the big picture and draw connections between seemingly disparate events or trends, and depth creativity, which is ingenuity within a specific realm, such as one's job. Unless you are hiring a Disney Imagineer, chances are you are looking for the latter.
Williams recommends reviewing your company's record of reacting to creative proposals to define just how out of the box employees should think: "You want specific examples of what's acceptable, what's not acceptable, what's too outlandish." If you find that the record shows a limited appetite for welcoming creativity, it may be time to refurbish the company culture. (See "Building a Creative Culture,")
2. Attract the Brightest Lights
Market your company to prospects. Each way you introduce the company to potential employees, starting with the career pages of your website, is an opportunity to convey the organization's goals and values. The message should be delivered creatively, says Libby Anderson, principal of the Naples, Florida, consulting firm Human Resources Now. Cirque du Soleil, for example, which is widely regarded for a creative environment in even its business operations, makes its case with employee testimonials on YouTube. It also maintains a Facebook page and recently hosted a Twitter session to attract physiotherapists, says Jacques Bergeron, the company's director of talent management.
Set the tone with the job description. Likewise, a job posting with flair is more likely to draw inspired candidates than a standard notice. That was the experience of Viget Labs, a Falls Church, Virginia, Web design company seeking an office manager. Viget conducted an experiment by posting two job descriptions: one standard, the other an impassioned and conversational call for talent. The latter drew fewer responses, but the candidates were more ambitious.
You can also use the job description to filter for some kinds of creativity. When artistic creativity is called for, ask candidates to submit a sample of their work. When other types of ingenuity are required, ask that candidates include in their cover letter proposed solutions to a specific challenge they might face on the job.
Seek adaptability. Being open to new experiences is important, says Erker, because "it's through various experiences that I pick up the tools that I need to look at a problem from different perspectives." So it's worth probing for experiences that aren't usually captured in a resumé, such as traveling or living abroad. Even frequently changing jobs can bring value to an applicant if it reflects an eagerness to take on new challenges and opportunities (as opposed to failing to master old ones).
Recruit from nontraditional sources. Ask your most creative employees for referrals. And consider looking outside your industry. Expertise can be acquired; creativity generally can't.
3. Put Candidates to the Test
The interview. Most HR professionals recommend asking candidates to describe on-the-job experiences that involved the skills and abilities the prospective job requires -- what's known as behavioral interviewing. When the requirement is creativity, for example, a question could go something like this: "Describe an experience when you were faced with a new problem and how you handled it." (For more behavioral questions, see "Plumbing for Creativity,") A variation on this asks candidates to respond to hypothetical situations. At Cirque du Soleil, "we usually have the manager come up with a challenge or situation their team faced recently and have the candidate come up with solutions," says Bergeron.