To recruit the very best staff for your firm, it may be time for HR departments to look for candidates from non-traditional fields
When it comes to recruiting the very best candidates, employers are often missing out on one crucial group of people who can bring great qualities to any firm: scientists.
“Australian companies should consider hiring scientists because they can be an asset to almost any workforce,” Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, told HC.
As well as being hard-working and extremely bright, those within the scientific field have the ability to solve complex problems quickly with minimal resources, he said.
“A good science and engineering degree teaches critical thinking, advanced IT, data gathering, problem solving and management – all of which are adaptable skills that enable graduates to identify their first job and succeed in a 50-year career,” he said.
“What company wouldn’t want those traits in an employee?”
The days of expecting a job directly linked to your undergraduate degree are over, he told HC, with massive increases in the number of students undertaking tertiary education making this impossible.
As students acquire deep discipline skills through formal training, this makes it simple for them to learn new skills on the job over and over again.
“Similarly, employers must recognise the benefits in hiring employees with critical thinking skills, and the ability to adapt to constantly changing working environments,” Finkel said.
Candidates with degrees in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) are a good starting point for employers seeking the best candidates. In fact, some of the big accounting firms already recognise the benefits of this demographic, he said.
“KPMG now recruits more than a third of its graduate intake from so-called non-traditional fields: from electrical engineering through to molecular biology.”
