Ginny Clarke on Winning the New Age Workplace

ACEC News / Fall Conference

October 29, 2021

Ginny Clarke on Winning the New Age Workplace

The workplace of the future will require a new approach to talent evaluation and recruitment, national business leadership consultant Ginny Clarke told a Fall Conference audience Friday.

The former Director of Executive Recruitment for Google, noted how the workplace of the recent past has been altered by issues such as the pandemic and social unrest which first prompted changes in societal perspectives and procedures, and is now blending into the future workplace.

“Winning the future workplace is not a human resources issue, but really a top leadership issue,” Clarke noted, while adding that a major change needs to occur regarding hiring which she emphasizes outdated procedures.

“We need to get away from the hierarchal control and demand approach that has been hiring method for decades,” she said.

Clarke added that the usual norm was for a firm is to seek the best talent,” she said. “What does that really mean since it so subjective,” she said. “The best in pedigree, the schools, and the grades have never been linked to success in a role.”

She instead urged consider what is best for the company and evaluate more effectively through competences as to hiring based solely on domain expertise. “Competences are different than skills,” she said, adding that a prospective recruit may be brilliant in a specific domain, but lacking in leadership.

Clarke urged talent evaluators keep track of employee satisfaction surveys to gain further insights on the workplace desires of the targeted talent, and cautioned “there is truly a talent war going on.”

Click here to listen to an Engineering Influence podcast episode with Ginny Clarke.

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