Is Your Company Hiring for the Future or Solving Yesterday’s Problems?

There is a question that should be part of every recruitment decision, particularly when a senior or leadership position is involved:

 

Are we hiring the person the company needs today, or the person it will need tomorrow?

At first glance, the difference may seem insignificant. In practice, it can determine an organisation’s ability to grow, adapt and compete.

When a company decides to recruit, it naturally starts by identifying its current needs. A team needs leadership, commercial results are below expectations, an operation requires greater efficiency, or a new project demands skills that the organisation does not currently possess.

The recruitment process then begins with defining a profile that addresses those needs.

The problem arises when the job description reflects exclusively the organisation’s past and present, leaving little room for what it wants to build in the future.

 

Past success does not guarantee future success.

Companies often favour candidates who have performed similar roles, in comparable businesses and in familiar environments.

This approach has its advantages. Relevant experience reduces uncertainty and makes it possible to assess tangible results.

However, it can also create a trap: looking for someone who has done exactly what we need, without questioning whether what we need is still the best answer for the future.

A company seeking to transform its commercial model may need more than a Sales Director who has successfully managed sales teams. It may need someone who can integrate new channels, use data to inform decisions and challenge practices that have delivered good results for years.

An organisation planning to expand internationally may need more than someone with experience in its domestic market. It may need a professional capable of building structures, leading across different cultural environments and developing capabilities that the company does not yet possess.

The point is not to undervalue experience. It is to understand whether the experience we are looking for prepares the organisation for its next challenge or simply reproduces solutions from the past.

 

Recruitment starts before a vacancy exists.

In most organisations, recruitment is triggered by a specific need: someone leaving, a replacement being required, a new position being created or a problem demanding an immediate response.

Understandably, business cannot stand still while the future is being planned.

Nevertheless, organisations that want to grow sustainably need to go further.

They need to anticipate the capabilities they will require, identify gaps within their teams and understand which skills they will need to develop internally or bring in from outside.

This means asking questions that do not always feature in the initial recruitment discussion:

• What changes could transform our business over the next two or three years?
• Which capabilities will be critical to delivering our strategy?
• Are we actively looking for those capabilities in the market, or simply assuming we already have them?
• Does the profile we have defined address future challenges, or has it been shaped around our current organisational structure?

These questions do not eliminate the urgency of recruitment. They help ensure that urgency does not replace strategic thinking.

 

We do not always need more experience. Sometimes, we need a different kind of experience.

There is another risk: confusing familiarity with suitability.

A candidate may have an impressive CV, deep industry knowledge and a consistent track record of results. Yet they may not be the right person for an organisation that needs to change.

Conversely, someone with a less conventional career path may bring a perspective, skill or approach that makes a real difference.

This does not mean hiring for the sake of originality, ignoring role requirements or taking unnecessary risks.

It means assessing candidates against the business’s actual challenges rather than comparing them exclusively with an ideal profile built around what we already know.

Sometimes, the best hire is not the most obvious one. It is the person who brings something the organisation will need, even if it has not yet fully recognised that need.

 

The true role of strategic recruitment.

This is where recruitment can take on a different dimension.

Rather than simply responding to an immediate need, it can help management challenge assumptions, identify capability gaps and assess whether the desired profile aligns with the company’s intended direction.

This requires a close relationship between the recruitment partner and the decision-makers. It requires an understanding of the business, its objectives, its constraints and the changes on the horizon.

And it requires the courage to ask a simple, but not always comfortable, question:

 

If we could build this team from scratch today, knowing what we know about the future of the business, would we hire exactly the same people for exactly the same roles?

The answer may not change every decision. But it could change the way some of those decisions are made.

Because successful recruitment is not simply about filling a position with someone capable of delivering results.

It is about making a decision on the capabilities, leadership and potential for growth we want within our organisation.

And that decision deserves to start not only with an assessment of what is missing today, but also with a reflection on what we want to become tomorrow.