A Strategic Aspect of HR

I’m reading a great book about hiring ‘A’ players for a given position, and what ‘A’ player means depends on the position. That is, the smartest, most ambitious person is probably not an ‘A’ player for a data entry job, because that person will quit. Similarly, someone without ambition and with poor interpersonal skills, might be an ‘A’ for that same position. Makes sense, and not too interesting.

 

What I haven’t read about is hiring to optimize employees for the competitive environment they face. Companies can be seen as an organism trying to grow. The fittest company grows the most. However, selection operates on many different levels: the gene level, the individual level, the group level, species level, et cetera. Companies can be viewed in a similar light. Companies should hire people that make the group fitter within the competitive environment.

 

An example in nature – a study on between group fitness was conducted with two different groups of hens kept in cages. One group of hens was bred based on how many eggs the group of hens produced. Another group was selected by looking at the hen that laid the most eggs within a group.

 

The group that maximized cage production would breed a new generation of hens from the cage that produced the most eggs – the friendly group. The individual maximized group would take and breed from the hens that produced the most eggs – the alpha group. Usually, the hens that laid the most eggs as an individual did so at the expense of the other hens within the cage.

 

After several generations, the the friendly group was producing significantly more eggs than the alpha group. In fact, the alpha group had become hyper competitive and would peck at each other, sometimes leading to the death of a hen. 

 

HR recruits a certain person, the company attracts more people like that, and eventually a certain personality trait can become entrenched. It could be risk taking, risk aversion or any number of attributes. The HR exec needs to understand the competitive landscape and the industry to ensure the culture being created is the right one for the market.