Choosing between two qualified candidates with different backgrounds is a common dilemma for organizations of all kinds.
In this hypothetical, Candidate A is qualified in both education and work experience, and selecting this candidate seems like a good option. They come from a family of successful accountants, and they participated in many different internship opportunities throughout their college career.
Candidate B is equally as qualified as Candidate A in terms of education but has less work experience because they did not have the same opportunities. Candidate B is a first-generation college graduate whose family owns a small business. They had to help run the family business instead of interning with an accounting firm during college like Candidate A.
Consider the big picture
You need to hire a candidate who is qualified for the position, and you’ll want to consider long-term goals.
One of your main investors requires your organization to meet certain diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals as a condition of their continued financial support.
Perhaps more importantly, your organization wants to meet internal DEI goals to uphold its ethical values and foster diversity of thought, which will make the firm better.
There may be more than one “correct” hire
In the scenario above, it sounds like both candidates would make great additions to your team.
Assuming both candidates are qualified for the role, you might look at your current team and see if there are any demographic holes one of the candidates could help fill.
You should aim for a diverse, thoughtful mix of voices throughout your organization. Are you missing a woman? If so, you hire the woman. Are you missing ethnic diversity? If so, you hire the ethnically diverse candidate. There could even be a situation where a white man would add to the diversity of your team. So many elements contribute to diversity, including age, disability, race, gender and more.
If you are dealing with a significant imbalance or lack of diversity — where nearly everyone on your team looks the same — you may need to be intentional in adjusting that. You can't leave it to chance.
当然, if one of the candidates is not qualified for the position but would add to your team’s diversity, you shouldn’t hire them for that reason alone.
然而, if both candidates are qualified, but one candidate has a less conventional resume or background, you may need to ask questions during the interview to understand their story and how their experience could translate to the job requirements.
If you are simply checking off boxes during interviews, you run the risk of hiring the same person every time. Instead, ask candidates to tell you their stories. Remember they are people, not numbers. If Candidate B has less experience than Candidate A, ask them why that is the case. Perhaps they will tell you how working for their family’s business instead of doing a traditional internship allowed them to build a unique set of skills and gain experience that could help them better relate to your firm’s small business clients.
Once you hear their story, try giving them hypothetical scenarios similar to those they may encounter in the role to see how they would approach them. Even if they’re not sure exactly what they would do in each scenario but are able to explain how they would figure it out, it shows they know how to problem solve. It demonstrates they have the potential to be great.
最后, it’s important to remember there is no “right” answer to this dilemma, although there might be one option that makes the most sense for your current organizational goals.
Explore additional resources related to ethics to ensure your organizational actions and values are aligned.