David Rai, CEO and Founder of Sparta Global— award winning UK technology services and Education company. King’s Award winner.

Traditional hiring is broken. A reliance on outdated assessment methods, a lack of flexibility and a focus on quantity over quality are consistently leading businesses to make poor hiring decisions.

In the digital space, where accessing in-demand and innovative technology talent is incredibly competitive, businesses cannot afford to waste time and resources on bad hiring. Business leaders must find a new momentum to access talent that might not tick legacy boxes, but has the drive, adaptability and potential to thrive.

What They Can Do Vs. What They Have Done

According to a 2025 Experis report, “In Q1 2025, 51% of surveyed IT firms reported plans to hire, but 75% of the same organisations said they’re also struggling to find the qualified candidates they need.”

This widening tech talent gap is something I see in my day-to-day work, and it is impacting the public and private sectors in the same way. It is incredibly easy for business leaders to make panicked hiring choices when a demand arises in their teams, or to look at emerging technologies such as AI and hire before a strategic understanding of these roles is established.

This is why I am a firm believer in hiring for what a person can do, and not what they have done. Skills have a short shelf life in digital—what matters most is finding future leaders who can learn, adapt and collaborate as technology evolves.

How To Hire

In our business, the process for hiring technology professionals revolves around identifying potential. While prior experience or education in the digital field is great, it is not a requirement for success. Instead, we choose to measure a person’s aptitude, attitude, resilience and learning agility through an inclusive recruitment process.

This includes psychometric testing, technical testing after access to pre-learning materials and written and verbal assessments. Not only does this enable us to understand a person’s work ethic, learning capabilities and character, but it also improves the diversity of hires. With a flexible approach to recruitment that isn’t bottlenecked by outdated degree and interview criteria, neurodiverse candidates have more opportunities to be included.

Organizations can utilize non-traditional talent pipelines to access these communities, too. Technology bootcamps, academies and community partnerships that support career-switchers or underrepresented communities all excel in identifying a person with potential and giving them the skills to learn and adapt to the changing technology landscape.

Why Potential Is Practical

In practice, hiring an individual from a non-traditional background offers several business benefits. Teams made up of people with different perspectives and backgrounds are known to strategically innovate better as they represent and reflect a greater mix of customer needs.

It is also a great way for businesses to build a talent pipeline, accessing emerging talent with the potential to lead in the future offers a greater long-term ROI than poaching more senior professionals in times of immediate demand.

These are all measurable benefits that complement the positive social impact businesses make when they give people from any background an opportunity to access a career that may have otherwise been unattainable. They will almost certainly receive loyalty, energy and fresh thinking from these hires in return.

As a CEO and co-founder of a technology business, I agree with the anecdote that “hiring for potential isn’t about lowering the bar. It’s about moving it to where the talent actually is.” The digital skills crisis has been looming and building for a decade, and it won’t improve if business leaders refuse to flex and adapt.

There are about 900,000 people not in active work, training or education in the U.K., but many have untapped potential—a symptom of their non-traditional backgrounds and lack of knowledge of alternative routes into tech. Combatting unemployment, democratizing digital education and bridging the skills gap are all interlocked challenges, but harnessing and hiring for potential could be the much-needed catalyst for change.

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

Source link