If you want to make change happen and stimulate new ideas within your organization you need to hire talent from outside your industry. If your company continues to hire people with the same experience and background, you are likely to get the same results.

Companies tend to set recruitment criteria that inevitably lead them to a pool of candidates from their own industry. These will be people who have a similar education and similar industry experience as the people they are replacing.

The ‘outside the box’ candidate will be a top talent that comes from a different industry with an atypical resume and can be, under the right circumstances, a tremendous advantage. The candidate can inject new ideas and new energy. If you hire from a competitor then they will only bring with them the known industry experience, not new experience. For example, if you are a manufacturer and want to improve your logistics, you will be likely to learn more from a candidate from Amazon or Fed Ex.

Hiring from outside helps sends an inescapable message that change will be taking place. However, it is important that present employees understand the reasons behind the hire and it will generate solutions to old problems and generate new approaches.

Companies that restrict hiring to industry-only candidates give off the perception that they’re resistant to change. Top talent is attracted to companies that are using best practices and offer opportunities for growth, not companies that always want to stick with the tried and tested.

Hiring from the same like-minded group of people is ideal if you want to keep ending up with the same results.  Someone who is not familiar with your industry can provide a fresh perspective and outlook on the way things are done.

It was Albert Einstein who said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”.