INDUSTRY experience is no longer crucial to land a top job, says Recruitment Solutions executive director Greg Savage.
Mr Savage said leadership skills were more important to today’s managers than industry experience.
“Microsoft will now hire programmers who have never been programmers,” he said. “They just want the smartest people they can find.”
Mr Savage said a new type of worker was emerging, the career blender – someone who can blend experiences from various careers.
However, it appears a high proportion of new management hires fail within the first few months.
“It seems chemistry and soft skills issues lead to these new hires ending in tears,” Mr Savage said. “Plus the real expectations of the role are often not recognised by the candidate.
“If the position offers a 20 per cent increase in salary, the candidate needs to provide a 20 per cent increase in productivity.”
Mr Savage said the unemployment rate meant the recruiting landscape was good.
“Even so, quality people are hard to find,” he said. “It seems companies are starting to address staff retention issues.
“Australian managers seem to find this concept of staff retention hard to understand.
“If they lose a computer system they understand that. It’s a hard asset loss but they can’t seem to grasp the importance of losing knowledge assets. They have to recognise key people cannot be taken for granted,” he said.
