Mike James Ross is a consultant at Egon Zehnder and former chief human resources officer at La Maison Simons.
For decades, hiring has been a matching game: a recruiter’s job was to find the candidate whose skills best fit a pre-defined job description.
It’s a predictable formula to evaluate talent, but it depends on the demands of the role staying pretty much the same.
Today, that’s an increasingly dangerous assumption. In a single quarter, new artificial intelligence capabilities can shift core workflows, render once-essential expertise less central and open up whole new categories of work. Skills for AI-exposed jobs are changing 66 per cent faster than for other jobs, up from 25 per cent last year. (And the bad news? Pretty much all jobs are now AI-exposed…)
At this rate, the role an organization hires for today may be starkly different in two months’ time. And that candidate who seemed like a perfect fit on paper? They may struggle to keep pace unless they have a crucial trait: adaptability.
Adaptability is the unsung qualification for the AI age
When hiring focuses primarily on technical skills and experience, organizations run the risk of overvaluing resilience. The logic goes: if an employee has succeeded under the pressure of a similar role previously, they’re equipped to handle future challenges and can bounce back from whatever is thrown at them.
However, resilience can sometimes become resistance – a tendency to cling to familiar ways of working while waiting for disruption to pass. If you’re standing in the surf, resilience is bracing yourself against a wave, confident you can hold your ground until it recedes. That may work for a while, but what happens when the waves are relentless?
The evolution of AI forces constant reinvention, as each technological shift arrives before the last has settled. With the nature of work changing so quickly and fundamentally, organizations need people who are ready to adapt and have “learned to surf.” These are the ones who see constant change as an opportunity and are excited and energized by new challenges.
This isn’t to say that determination has no value. Employees must still persist toward a goal in the face of setbacks. But to build teams that can adjust their approach to confront novel challenges, adaptability must take precedence over resistance and a desire to go back to the way it was.
What shows adaptability?
The natural next question is: how do we find these adaptable people?
This requires reconceptualizing the hiring process to move beyond traditional notions of “qualifications.” By proactively assessing adaptability and not just expertise, organizations can uncover high potential “Swiss Army Knife” candidates they might have otherwise overlooked.
Consider these three strategies:
Ask interview questions that centre around curiosity: A candidate’s level of curiosity speaks to their attitude toward learning. Curious people will actively explore unfamiliar territory and diverse perspectives, rather than stay in the comfort of what they already know.
Unconventional interview questions such as, “What’s the most interesting fact or piece of media you’ve come across recently?” can reveal how a candidate reacts to new information. Similarly, asking, “What have you changed your mind about in the last two years, and what led you to that decision?” offers insight into how they respond to new evidence and translate learning into action.
Look for determination in unlikely places: A key aspect of adaptability is persisting through new challenges. While a common interview tactic is to ask about a candidate’s experience navigating a difficult work scenario, other experiences can reveal determination more vividly. The choice to learn a new sport, language or musical instrument demonstrates sustained effort and self-discipline toward a goal, especially when pursued at a high level or in adulthood.
Whether these experiences appear on a resume or surface in conversation, they show a willingness to embrace uncertainty and push through the hard parts of steep learning curves.
Reframe the ‘unconventional’ resume: Historically, unconventional or non-linear career paths raised flags for hiring managers. These folks were often tagged as “jumpy.” But when assessing a person’s capacity to navigate shifting circumstances, those detours can signal versatility and resourcefulness.
If a candidate has worked at multiple companies within a five-year span – or pivoted industries altogether – they’ve likely learned to find their footing quickly in unfamiliar environments. Likewise, a candidate who finished their degree later in life likely had to re-engage with an academic environment while balancing other commitments.
While every resume review requires further context, holding too tightly to a traditional ideal risks overlooking people whose careers have been shaped by transitions and new experiences. And who may have a more multi-faceted skill set to bring to the organization.
These days, the ability to embrace and surf through change must be part of an organization’s strategy – starting with the people it hires. Team members who are energized by the opportunity to evolve, rather than resistant to it, will see new challenges as opportunities to learn and grow and expand the impact of their work.
Adaptability takes effort to identify, but by rethinking how you assess potential talent, you prepare your organization to not only survive, but thrive in this moment of extreme evolution.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.