Consider this: A vegetarian hired one of her most talented employees after buying a t-shirt at a Spam festival. Yes, this actually happened — at a Spam festival.
The vegetarian was Melanie Lucas, director of people services at Rose Community Management/Jonathan Rose Companies in Independence, Ohio. She told me she was immediately drawn in by an enthusiastic young woman selling t-shirts at the Spam Jam Festival in Hawaii.
“We got to talking, and she mentioned she was looking for career direction advice,” Lucas said. “We didn’t have any openings in Hawaii, but we hired her as a leasing consultant in California.” This HR professional probably never imagined she’d meet a potential employee at a festival dedicated to Spam. However, Lucas’s open mind helped her spot talent.
And her willingness to see people beyond their current roles has continued to help her find top candidates in unusual places.
Here are five other unexpected settings where real people have found some of their best hires:
1. Holiday parties
A holiday party in a warehouse doesn’t seem like the best place to meet an organization’s next lead infrastructure and security engineer, but for Bobby Kolba, chief of staff engineering at Textio in Seattle, the timing was just right.
After discussing some problems he was having at Textio with a fellow party attendee, he not only gained a new perspective, but also a new co-worker. “A resume has a list of skills, but it may not allow the person to showcase what they are uniquely good at,” Kolba said. “In an informal situation, I try to understand someone’s core motivations and values.
“So, when I talk to folks outside of the office, I am looking for people with a history of learning new things. I would encourage recruiters to look for people who want to push themselves and discover new areas of growth.”
Talking with people outside an organization about its problems can provide an outside perspective and get someone excited about joining and positively changing the company.
Paying attention to how an outsider talks about solving the issues a company is facing can help leaders find great potential employees.
2. Reference-checking
“A great place to find a future employee is actually through reference checking,” Ray Bixler, president and CEO of SkillSurvey in Berwyn, Pa., told me. Bixler said he firmly believes that talent attracts talent.
By this, he means that references listed on a resume or…