How Creative Candidates Can Benefit Businesses
Yes, it’s true, creative candidates can benefit businesses and I’m here to explain how. In many workplaces, a lot of focus is put on good grades and academic subjects/thinking. While this is clearly a working model for successful work and business, I feel some employers are missing out on those who haven’t strictly adhered to the purely ‘academic’ subjects. Coming from a background of both academic and creative qualifications I feel employers are missing a trick when not fully considering people with purely creative or vocational backgrounds. So read on for how creative candidates can benefit businesses.
I fully appreciate some jobs just need the right experience and/or qualifications. However, skills can always be taught, dates can always be remembered, but you can’t change the way in which someone thinks. Thinking in a creative and different way can have numerous benefits to employers and this article will explore the ways in which hiring creative people can be a fantastic benefit and investment of your time and money.
Defining Creativity
Before explaining these advantages I feel it will be beneficial to define creativity in the workplace. I could spend a whole other article on this definition but for efficiency, I will boil it down to some of the key aspects. Quite a simple and easy to understand definition is that creativity is when someone considers a subject in an in-depth but different way, leading to producing new and different viewpoints. Leon Mann also states ‘Creativity is something which occurs when we are able to organise our thoughts in such a way that readily leads to a different and even better understanding of the subject or situation we are considering.’[1]
Furthermore, some of the key traits that creative people show are; generating ideas and solutions that are quite unusual, often ‘out of the box’, not being afraid to take risks and implementing ideas that haven’t been done before, and being more expressive in their general demeanour.
So, how can these kinds of people benefit you?
Problem Solving
Firstly, let’s look at creative people’s ‘out of the box’ thinking in relation to problem-solving. Challenges, queries and problems are becoming ever increasingly complex and demanding to solve. In complex situations that many of us come across today, creatives can organise these situations in their mind easily. They can find order to them and bring new approaches and solutions to these problems that might not have been discovered or thought of before. This is because creative people tend to think a little differently from others. They look at lots of different perspectives and try and ask questions that may be closer to what a customer would ask. ‘Answering those questions is important to satisfy customers and grow business.’[2] Furthermore, not only do they use logic to find solutions but they use their intuition and aren’t afraid to take some risks.
Risk Taking Benefits Businesses
Speaking of risks, these can greatly benefit businesses and creatives have been shown to take more risks than others. While this may not always benefit some companies, it can produce fantastic results for others. Fear of failure or being thought of in a negative way holds people back. However, creative people are more likely to take these risks and share ‘crazy’ ideas. These risks can pay off and produce new innovative results and ideas. Their fluency means that they can come up with ‘more than one idea along the same topic or theme’[11] Because they are able to think with more creativity they can normally provide more details, different views and perspectives. These ideas are usually unique and out of the ordinary. ‘Creative leadership recognizes the risk in trying new things and doesn’t fear failure.[12]
Attitude to Work
In terms of workplace attitudes, creative people can benefit companies greatly in this area of things. Analytical thinkers normally have their own routine and a way of doing things that doesn’t really change over the course of their career. Neither does it change drastically in different situations. (Of course this can be a very beneficial thing!) But they tend to have the attitude of, it’s always worked like this so why change it? ‘This doesn’t allow for growth in a constantly-changing world’.[3]
Creatives tend to have a more flexible way of doing things and a broader approach to work. [4] This can result in new ideas and an increase in efficiency and productivity. They find ways to maximise potential and challenge the way an office or process works by looking at situations differently. They are also able to observe several unobserved issues and find solutions to these. Furthermore, when you are thinking differently, ‘your business is more likely to be original, since it will use the creative ideas of its multifaceted employees instead of doing what has been done before’. This makes business innovative and able to stand out from the crowd.[5]
This way of thinking can motivate others within the workplaces, and ‘can encourage analysis and idea generation instead of falling back on habit.’[7] People can also then work together and actually use the old ideas to produce new ones.[8]
Their Different Motivations Benefit Businesses
The motivations are different in creative candidates. Instead of being motivated by money or rewards, creative are motivated by the tasks they are dealing with, especially if it is something they are passionate about. This often means that during the course of their employment, creatives tend to go above and beyond what is expected or required of them. Furthermore, they tend to show more commitment and proactivity in exploring other opportunities for the company they work for.[6] How can this not benefit businesses?
On the whole, creatives are suited to ever-changing roles or roles that require change and variation within. This is because they respond well to change due to their flexibility and versatility. Joshua Turner states, ‘Companies need flexible employees who have the enthusiasm to take up new challenges and explore different opportunities. Creative employees respond well to change.’[9]
Personal Skills/Qualities
Creatives usually have excellent personable skills. Interpersonal skills are essential to building relationships not just with clients but also within the workplace. Furthermore, being around creatives can encourage others to think a little differently, bring them out of their shell or comfort zone and enable people to start bouncing ideas off of each other. Creative candidates can impact whole groups, sparking ideas off of one another, encouraging them to come up with new and innovative ideas.[10] Furthermore, when coming up with new ideas, they don’t stop at the first hurdle or idea that they have. They keep going to pursue new ones, wanting to constantly improve.
Conclusion
While not all companies will want or need creative candidates due to the nature of the work, others can benefit greatly for the reasons listed above. Being in recruitment, I think it is important to keep an open mind about all candidates and not write them off purely because they didn’t take strictly traditional or academic subjects. So next time you come across a creative candidate, try and think of all the ways they could bring a fresh new ethic to your workplace and benefit your business.
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Article references:
[1]Leon Mann, Janet Chan<http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/0415345421/about/pdf/sample.pdf> p.2
[2] Joshua Turner, ‘5 Benefits of Hiring Creative Employees’, Work it Daily (20th October 2013). <https://www.workitdaily.com/hiring-creative-employees-benefits/>
[3] Melly Parker, ‘About Creative Thinking in the Workplace’, Houston Chronical <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/creative-thinking-workplace-17614.html>
[4] Joshua Turner, ‘5 Benefits of Hiring Creative Employees’, Work it Daily (20th October 2013). <https://www.workitdaily.com/hiring-creative-employees-benefits/>
[5] Melly Parker, ‘About Creative Thinking in the Workplace’, Houston Chronical <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/creative-thinking-workplace-17614.html>
[6] Joshua Turner, ‘5 Benefits of Hiring Creative Employees’, Work it Daily’(20th October 2013). <https://www.workitdaily.com/hiring-creative-employees-benefits/>
[7] Melly Parker, ‘About Creative Thinking in the Workplace’, Houston Chronical’<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/creative-thinking-workplace-17614.html>
[8] Dean Rieck, ‘Do You Have These 11 Traits of Highly Creative People? Copyblogger (21st July 2009) <http://www.copyblogger.com/highly-creative-people/>
[9] Joshua Turner, ‘5 Benefits of Hiring Creative Employees’, Work it Daily (20th October 2013). <https://www.workitdaily.com/hiring-creative-employees-benefits/>
[10] Melly Parker, ‘About Creative Thinking in the Workplace’, Houston Chronical <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/creative-thinking-workplace-17614.html>
[11] Erik Wahl, ‘The Importance of Creativity in the workplace’ allBusiness, <https://www.allbusiness.com/the-importance-of-creativity-in-the-workplace-24566-1.html>
[12] Erik Wahl, ibid.
