Strength-based recruitment to dominate by 2020: experts

Les Williamson, Suzy Green, Sara Adams and Clive Leech talk strength-based recruitment in the IT industry

Strength based recruitment, collaboration and diversity are vital for employee success according to a panel of IT leaders and psychology experts.

Organised by Cisco, Females in Information Technology and Telecommunications (FITT) and Australian Computer Society Women (ACSW), the panel gathered in Sydney to discuss why understanding individual strengths is so important in the IT workplace.

Dr Suzy Green from the Positive Psychology Institute said the trend began overseas where large companies are looking to strengths based recruitment strategies.

“Alex Lindly, the leading figure in strengths based recruitment, is doing fantastic work. He’s been working with Ernst and Young who have changed its recruitment process from competency based recruitment to strengths based recruitment,” Green said.

Director of commercial business at Cisco Australia and New Zealand, Sara Adams, said understanding her weaknesses allowed her to make more collaborative decisions in her role.

“One of my strengths that came out of my performance review was collaboration, but leading change was not. I looked at my collaboration strength and used it to get my team, sales representatives and the organisation tied to the business success and got them involved in driving the change in the company,” she said.

Vice president of Cisco ANZ, Les Williamson, said sports psychology is one technique being used in the recruitment process at Cisco. He also said authenticity is coming out of strength based recruitment at the company.

“One of my growth areas is to focus on the gaps and leverage on that. Our customers and partners are getting clued into strength based partnerships. To me, authenticity does evolve,” he said.

Executive coach Clive Leach said employees need to maintain a positive attitude when completing performance reviews.

“It’s very common for people to focus on all the negatives of a performance appraisal. In a negative mind state it’s hard to find productive ways to move forward. We need to help people realise it’s not all bad. The picture is more blurred than people realise,” he said.

IT employer confidence recently rose for the fifth consecutive quarter, according to a report.