I once met with a company who openly admitted and bragged about their hiring criteria. They were certain they had figured it out—perfectly. This I had to hear! The company prided itself on being a ‘green company.’ Being green, they felt was a core aspect of the business. Decisions were made and green policies were enforced around this concept. Being green was a key aspect in all of their marketing and they even educated customers and prospects about it.

I commend this company for taking such an active role in the green movement, but when it comes to hiring they showed how little they know about ‘being green’ and making decisions. Once this company made the decision to bring someone in for an in-person interview they ultimately made their decision based on the car the prospect drove to the interview!

They felt that anyone hired had to be personally active in the green movement and was expected to drive a Prius (the only mainstream electrical car at the time). If a prospect showed up in a truck or Hummer they were automatically disqualified even though it has been reported for years now that the Prius is no more environmentally friendly than any other car mainly because of the nickel battery—in fact it took almost 50% more energy to drive and build a Prius than a Hummer.

Ok let’s set aside the technical environmental aspect of the situation and look at how this company makes decisions. This company felt being green outweighed the prospective employee’s skills, traits, or interaction with the rest team. Is this right? Is judging a prospective employee by the type of car they drive really going to tell you if they would be an asset to your team?

I wonder if they have the same expectation for their current employees. Are all current employees expected to just go buy a new car, or house, or boat because it is marketed as green? How many highly qualified and skilled people have they turned away because of this narrow-mindedness? I also wonder how this hyper-obsession has caused them to make poor decisions in other areas of their business.

Oh and it doesn't look like hybrids are making much improvement, check this out.

The traditional way to hire anyone is to learn all about their past from their resume, online websites, and even assessments. Only if they have done it before, can they do it now. Somehow, we have become a society that believes a person’s future is based solely on what they have already done.

Yes there are some people that thrive in doing the same thing over and over and there is nothing wrong with that, but when in history have we ever moved forward by running in circles? There is no doubt that the business market and standards are rapidly changing, but yet when uncertainty prevails we revert back to what worked before without consideration of why it doesn’t or won’t work moving forward.

People are not lemmings.

So what do we change? What does hiring of tomorrow look like? Well that is up to you. Companies are learning that one size does not fit all anymore, who knows maybe it never did—it was just easier for us to assume that it did. Companies are customizing their hiring process to align with their culture. Here are three completely different examples to get you thinking:

HubSpot. When HubSpot hired Dan Zarrella, one of their priorities was Dan’s following on Twitter. He had already built a solid respectable reputation and had found a way to provide analytics to a tool that most were having a hard time understanding. This was important to HubSpot as their services are focused online and around social media.

37singals. While hiring is not something they have to do often because of their culture, when they do hire there are two main practices that they follow—1-they do the job themselves first. Until they understand the details of what the job will entail, they don’t feel they can make the right decision about who is right for the job. 2-they ignore resumes. It is no secret that most people tell some form of a lie on their resume, so 37signals takes that element out of their hiring process. Instead, they focus on the cover letter and feel that will tell them all they need to know about the person applying. They use the philosophy of “when in doubt, hire the better writer.”

Lady Gaga. I’m sure you are asking, “What on earth does Lady Gaga have anything to do with hiring?” Lady Gaga has been very open about her life prior to her success—mainly working in dingy clubs to get by. But now, she is known for her amazing attention to detail and her ability to exploit the internet. Yet she has no formal marketing training and prior to her success she never would’ve been able to land a real marketing job. But when she met with Jon Pollock, CMO of Polaroid he was impressed with what she had to say and gave her creative control of a few products and title of “Creative Director.”

So does a person’s past always dictate their future? How are you changing your hiring process?