Exceptional can come from anywhere

A rapidly shifting talent landscape has challenged many companies to re-write their recruiting playbooks in order to find enough of the right talent. As talent attraction leaders, we want to share three ways organizations can break their “talent-deficit” loop—by thinking differently about areas such as sourcing, engagement, and selection—informed by McKinsey's journey to cast an even wider net to attract exceptional, diverse talent.

Sourcing

More than academic pedigree, the kinds of problems we tackle require people who are curious—about themselves and others. And our research suggests that grit and resilience, along with the optimism, judgment, and agility to change course if their initial attempts fail, are becoming increasingly important qualities for business leaders of the future. Like us, many companies are looking for new ways to find the underlying qualities they need, and we have started to learn what it takes to find them in new places.

Set bold goals for broader sourcing. Many companies hire from the same talent pools year after year because they see the most familiar sources as the easiest places to find the right fit. While many talent needs can be filled in this way, we know that exceptional people are everywhere—and companies that stick to the same places they’ve always hired from are missing out on an enormous opportunity.

Setting a specific, measurable ambition helps. A few years ago, we set a goal to increase our talent pool to 5,000 academic sources, up from 500. Since then, we’ve enhanced our tracking system to better measure our progress and just passed 1,700 academic sources.

As part of this evolution, several of our McKinsey offices launched efforts to connect with exceptional talent from local schools in their cities (including commuter colleges) that had not been on our usual recruiting “tour”. We had to think differently about reaching those students because they tend to know less about our firm, and we know less about their skills and experiences than schools we have recruited from often. We started by engaging alumni from those schools to meet with students, introduce them to what we do, and coach candidates who apply—many of whom would never have considered us without this kind of personalized outreach.

Lean into potential. Many employers focus on “ready to hire” candidates—those who have the technical skills to do the job on day 1—but are missing out on “ready to learn” candidates who have high intrinsic skills and an aptitude for learning through apprenticeship. We are now hiring from data boot camps and other apprenticeship programs for talented people without four-year university degrees, known as STARs (skilled through alternative routes). To make the most of this new world of talent, we have developed new markers to understand the trajectory of growth and impact we can expect to see once they are here.

Engagement

Reaching new pools of talent is not just about helping new kinds of candidates get to know us. It is also about empowering those who think they do not belong here to believe they could—and enabling them to put their best foot forward in the selection process.

Let your people—and their stories—do the talking. Today’s top talent craves authenticity and proof points from prospective employers, not generic slogans. This means sharing candid stories from diverse colleagues to illustrate what real life is like “on the inside” and helping candidates imagine what that would feel like for them.

Welcome tough questions. Candidates are savvy enough to know that every position will have its challenges—they want to make career choices with their eyes open. Tough questions, well answered, build more trust than passively listening to a pitch. In our recruiting materials and one-on-one interactions, we encourage candidates to challenge us with their toughest questions and our ambassadors to describe their honest experiences.

Level the playing field. To ensure that we measure potential and skill, not paper credentials or familiarity with our selection process, we have invested heavily in a new interview preparation site. The site includes practice questions, coaching tips from some of our most seasoned interviewers, and registration links for live sessions to ask questions and learn more—giving all candidates the same information to put them on the same footing.

Selection

Choosing the right talent from new pools typically requires new ways to figure out which candidates are a fit since familiar pattern-recognition may not translate and the skills required to succeed are constantly evolving.

Understand what matters now. We regularly revisit the underlying skill and impact markers that signal long-term success and build updates into our process. We recently added a new interview step called, “Courageous Change,” in which we ask our candidates to describe a time when they experienced significant change or encountered an ambiguous situation and the actions they took to adapt. We did this to draw out the qualities of resilience and comfort with uncertainty that are increasingly important in the high-stakes problems we tackle.

Measure what matters most. Screening tests help expand the aperture of candidates who get a serious look, but they can also miss the mark by rewarding test-taking and preparation rather than critical thinking and problem solving. We recently developed a game-based assessment set in a nonbusiness context (think animals and ecosystems versus clients and boardrooms) and focuses on how individuals think, rather than whether they can get the “right” answer. With only curiosity, a minimal internet connection, and little to no business knowledge, the game provides an equal opportunity for candidates to showcase their intrinsic abilities.


These are just a few of the innovations we are pursuing to widen the aperture of exceptional talent we bring into McKinsey. We are excited to continue engaging with and learning from other people leaders who are finding new ways to connect with new kinds of candidates.