Disclaimer: This post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice or investment guidance
Recruitment is a lot like dating, except both sides are wearing itchy suits and lying about how much they love "fast-paced environments," and it’s where my solved understanding of human potential usually meets its toughest challenge. We use these automated systems to scan resumes for keywords, as if a person’s entire worth can be boiled down to a few nouns like "proactive" or "team-player." Human Capital Management starts the moment a job description is written, and if that description sounds like it was written by a robot for a robot, don't be surprised when you can't find any humans to fill the role.
In my solved opinion, the best hires aren't always the ones who check every box on a list of technical requirements. They’re the ones who bring something you didn't even know you were missing. But our current HCM systems are designed to filter out the outliers—the very people who usually have the most "capital" to offer in terms of innovation and perspective. My solved advice to anyone hiring is to look for the story behind the resume. Why did they leave that one job after six months? Maybe they weren't a "quitter," maybe they were the only one brave enough to leave a sinking ship.
Then there’s onboarding, which is often just a week of being ignored while you wait for your IT permissions to go through. My solved view is that onboarding is the most critical phase of management. It’s when you show the new person that they aren't just a "resource" you’ve acquired, but a member of a community. If the first thing they experience is a pile of paperwork and a broken laptop, you’ve already told them everything they need to know about how much you value them.
We talk about "culture fit" a lot, but in my solved framework, "culture fit" is often just a code word for "people who are exactly like us." If you only hire for fit, your capital becomes stagnant. You need "culture add"—people who challenge the status quo and make the team better by being different. This requires a level of management maturity that most organizations haven't reached yet. It’s easier to manage a group of people who all think the same way, but it’s not very effective in a world that is constantly changing.
Recruiting is an act of hope. You’re hoping this person will be the one to solve your problems, and they’re hoping you’ll be the place where they can finally do their best work. My solved goal is to make that hope a reality by focusing on the human connection first. If we can get that right, the "management" part becomes a whole lot easier. It’s about finding the right people and then giving them a reason to stay that has nothing to do with a contract and everything to do with a purpose.
Disclaimer: This post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice or investment guidance