Automated hiring won’t work at senior levels: Heidrick & Struggles’ Christopher Uhrinek
As AI applications continue to advance in sophistication, more and more routine work is becoming automated, including hiring: HR professionals and AI experts are saying that a lot of hiring may be done by AI in the future. But AI can’t do everything. It can’t fill in for the people who manage others, for the people who think strategically, or for the people who make the major, judgement-based business decisions. And unsurprisingly, it can’t hire or retain these people either.
People Matters asked Christopher Uhrinek, principal with Heidrick Consulting, why automated hiring won’t work for filling senior positions, and what role the human touch plays in retaining top leaders and ensuring they succeed. Here are the highlights of the conversation.
You’ve written about how organizations can use digital to enhance their capabilities in the past. How are you yourself using AI to improve the search and selection process for senior level positions?
I think AI is better placed right now not to identify experience, but to evaluate the psychometric traits that underlie leadership capabilities and correlate with a leader’s success. That’s what we’re looking at now: tools that can examine these characteristics in an unbiased way and surface things that might not be seen using traditional behavioural observations.
And it’s not just about finding and checking one candidate. It’s about uncovering hidden potential within a large group of people. AI is very good at scaling, so you can deploy it broadly across a large pool to find that one individual. And then, you can add that data point to the process and use your other tools to narrow down who is fit for the job. That’s incredibly valuable not just for finding someone for the single role, but in identifying high potential talents more generally.
With AI becoming ever more effective in the recruitment process, do you ever worry that your own job will end up being automated out of existence?
The people aspect is still going to be critical for those very senior positions. We’re talking about executive director and above: C-suite level, regional presidents, senior specialized roles. These are more unique candidates, people who are needed to take the business in a different direction, so it’s less about finding someone who fits a particular profile, and more about thinking about the strategy that the business is trying to implement, the trends and developments in the market, the organizational realities that the business is facing today. And then you try to translate that organizational component into a description of the leader you need.
There are models out there which try to use AI to develop job descriptions, even for senior roles, but these models are often built off existing performance standards and existing business models. They’re built off the talent that is known in the industry. So they are less capable of attracting non-traditional talent, and they are less capable of helping companies that are moving into a new business.
Going back to what you mentioned about psychometric traits, have you observed any trends in the kind of traits that people are looking for in their senior leaders these days?
The biggest thing that people are looking for now is agility. They’re looking for leaders who can move from one type of business model to another, one type of industry to another, one type of customer to another. They’re looking for leaders who can handle ambiguity well.
The second thing is that we’re seeing a real need for T-shaped leaders. By that, I mean leaders who are broad across a range of capabilities, and at the same time deep in one. In years past, a lot of emphasis was put on functional and technical experience, but because things are changing so rapidly, there is now a need for people who can lead across multiple areas.
Does this mean that organizations are now more open to leaders who come from different industries and fields?
We’re seeing a lot more of that than we ever have before. It’s still something that companies are often cautious about, but we feel that the companies who are taking those risks also see a lot of reward.
The biggest thing about bringing in someone from another industry is supporting them as they onboard, to make sure they understand the culture of the industry they’re in, the culture of the company they’re in, and they can build an influence base quickly to be successful. Especially in the digital world: digital talents may come from a digital-type company and move into a traditional company, and it’s hard for both sides. It’s hard for them to adjust to their peers, and it’s hard for their peers to adjust to them. You have to really think about how you can make the landing softer and avoid that “organ rejection” that sometimes happens when you bring in a leader from outside the industry.
What are some good practices for making sure new leaders get that softer landing?
The behaviors that a leader relied on in one job may not necessarily serve them well in another job. So one thing that helps is to list down all the behaviors, skills, and capabilities that worked for them and ask: given the new company, the new culture, the new context, which of these can you rely on? And it may not be the same.
We find that a lot of the missteps that happen are because people are not taking a lot of time, or not being thoughtful, about onboarding. Companies might be pushing their new leaders too quickly, not giving enough thought to who the stakeholders are or how to understand their needs. Those conversations have to happen early: the incoming leaders have to take the time to understand the stakeholders and make sure the stakeholders understand their agenda.
As for the leaders themselves, they need agility. It’s not just the curiosity and dexterity of thinking that allows them to move across companies and industries. They also need to be empathetic and understand the people they’re dealing with: the new teams, the new customers.
What’s your advice for organizations that are planning a change of leadership?
Don’t overlook the importance of a proper integration and onboarding process. It’s not just about the mechanics like IT and setting up their benefits. You need a really thoughtful integration process, and that might take anywhere from a year to 18 months. It’s a journey that is important, and it plays out over time.
The other thing that often makes or breaks the success of a new leader is making sure they are very clear about what their role will be and how it fits with the broader strategy. Going back to digital leaders, we often see that companies want to hire a big name in digital. But what they haven’t really articulated is, what is this leader trying to accomplish? What is the strategy they’re driving, and how do they fit into the current organizational realities? For someone to be successful, you have to think about that ahead in time, to make sure you’re finding a leader that fits that role.