How many times have we seen decisions made during a hiring process based on a simple case of distinct similarities? How many times have business owners / Directors / Hiring Managers hired someone who is a carbon copy of themselves?

Surprisingly (or perhaps not so) it happens far more often that we would care to admit.

Inexperienced employers fall into the same trap of hiring candidates who think, act, behave the same, who went to the same school or university, who follow the same football team, listen to the same music or drink at the same pub. These brilliant reasons to hire pretty much always fail.

Bizarre, huh?!

The thing is, once we start to hire those candidates these carbon-copies of ourselves we run into two major risks:

• We hire the same behaviors and attitudes. This means we also hire the same flaws as we have. The issues here is that our flaws are in our approaches and attitudes, and if we get someone in with exactly the same approaches and attitudes we will double our flaws and ensure that growth is liable to a furthering of the inhibitors that we have
• There is no chance to inject new ideas and new blood by hiring similarities. As a business owner or CEO or Director, we have great ideas – it’s what got you growing thus far – but within that propensity to growth are things that hold us back, that we may not have thought of or that we cannot push ourselves to. This is where a different approach via the hiring of an employee with a different sense of ideals can be catalyst for the next phase of growth.

So why does this happen? Simple: it’s easy. Those that fall into the trap of hiring familiarity are after a quick, easy solution to their hiring conundrum. They have been bamboozled by someone who is their equal that they don’t even bother looking for the wood in the trees. The candidate is there, it’s comfortable to have someone alike, and the decision is an easy one. Bottom line is it is borne out of pure laziness. No challenge, no new ideas, just same old, same old.

Employers that hire with a view to growth and strategically aligned decisions tend to discard familiarity and go for candidates that will challenge them and provide an injection of new blood, ideals and methodologies that could be the difference between stagnation and growth. Without that view, and without that need to be challenged, businesses will plod along, not really experiencing the possibilities that come with sticking the neck out just a little.