Multi-channel businesses need multi-faceted personalities

Running and building a true multi-channel business requires access to a whole plethora of technical skills to make it really sing and stand out ahead of the competition.

The obvious ones are, well, obvious. SEO, PPC, digital marketing, data analytics, CRM and UX and a whole host of other acronyms that will deliver the very best products and services in whatever manner the customer chooses to devour them. So surely the best strategy is to build your in-house talent by hiring the very best digital skills the market has to offer and then set them the task of creating great ‘stuff’ that your customers will love.  What could possibly go wrong?

The best digital brains all working together will surely come up with the best products and solutions. Well Sometimes.

But that’s a bit like forgetting to add the yeast to your Zopf mix! The basic ingredient that ties it all together and makes it work is missing. Your bread has no ‘life’.

So to explain the analogy (before I lose you), the missing ingredient in your team is ‘personality’. If scant (or no) attention is paid towards identifying and hiring the right personalities then your teams won’t gel, collaborative working will be a pipedream and great products will simply fail to materialise as a result.

The problem lies not in the awareness of the need, but in the mechanisms employed to ‘identify’ the presence or absence of the additional, less tangible, personality traits at the early stages of engagement. Traditional CV’s fail spectacularly in their effectiveness at differentiating personality, and the interview process is all too often used to trip up the candidate in a one-sided show of intimidation and unnecessary dominance – think Claude on The Apprentice. Neither are helpful nor useful in identifying the perfect match for a business, yet still we persist down this route and are surprised when we sometimes end up with a mis-match. Or more often a disillusioned candidate.

At Rank the essential ingredients that most influence our aim of delivering an exceptional digital customer experience are, in equal measure, technical capability plus personality, attitude and behaviour. So we work hard to identify all of these at both application and interview stage.

A different approach

Our responsive multi-channel application process presents the opportunity to provide details about past experience and job-relevant skills, but also the facility to attach rich media (video, images, supporting documents) that unveil the person behind the paper CV. The personality behind the name, the attitude behind the technical experience. If we are truly interested in the personality we are hiring we should be as equally concerned in enabling candidates to showcase this as we are the technical skills we require. In our eyes, what maketh man is not upbringing, privilege or history but attitude, willingness to adapt and develop, and above all passion for the customer. And THIS is defined by the person.

So what do we look for specifically? Great communication, creativity and innovation – evidenced by a 30 second piece to camera and/or an image of a personally produced piece of artwork perhaps. Demonstration of teamwork and collaboration – supported by testimonials from a sports coach or a video of contributing to a team. Confirmation of ambition and responsibility substantiated by links to involvement in forums or groups working for the greater good. In short – employability factors. Things employers want, need and seek, but struggle to unearth and extract from the laborious process of CV sifting and intimidating interviews.

Our interview process combines technical dialogue and discussion, problem solving, competency questioning and a values, behaviours and attitude element to really get to understand the motivations, strengths, development needs and potential of our prospective employees – but even more importantly to give YOU a view of the reality of the role and the opportunities that accompany. It’s a two way process don’t forget.

And once you’re an employee – your application becomes your internal talent profile so you can be tapped up for career development, volunteering, social engagement and much more. A living, breathing record of what makes you tick and what makes you different.

My advice if you are recruiting digital talent is to move far away from a combative, ‘prove you’re good enough for us’ approach to recruitment and seek inclusive methods that unearth the unexpected employability traits in untapped communities of job seekers that will excite and entertain your customers. Use technology to allow candidates to position their passions and interests in formats that are engaging, accessible and relevant, and adopt creative and relevant selection methods that allow candidates to shine in areas that will really make a difference.

My advice if you are a candidate is to use every opportunity to promote your personality and personal values in addition to your technical capabilities. It’s you we are hiring. Techie genius we love, but techie genius with a generous dollop of personality suits our aspirations to be the UK’s leading multi-channel gaming operator far better!