Article
KNOW NO BOUNDARIES: WHY GREAT RECRUITMENT MEANS LOOKING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
There’s a phrase we use at Chase & Holland that sums up how we believe recruitment should work:
Know No Boundaries.
It sounds simple, but for us, it means much more than geography. It means not allowing a postcode, job title, sector, CV, salary bracket or conventional search to dictate where the best person for a business might be found. Because after years of recruiting, one thing becomes very clear:
The best candidate isn't always the most obvious candidate.
The recruitment market has changed; recruiters have more technology available to them than ever before. LinkedIn, Job boards, Databases, Automation, AI, Sophisticated search tools.
Finding people has arguably never been easier, but finding great people, that's still difficult.
Search for a Financial Controller, HR Business Partner, Operations Manager or Head of Supply Chain and you could potentially find hundreds of profiles. But a list of profiles isn't a shortlist. The real skill is identifying the handful of people who could genuinely make a difference to the business. Sometimes that means looking beyond the obvious.
Look beyond the job title
One of the easiest recruitment briefs to understand is:
"We want somebody who's already doing exactly this job, in exactly this industry, for exactly this type of company."
It sounds logical but it can also dramatically restrict the talent pool.
Could an Operations Manager from another manufacturing environment bring fresh thinking?
Could a commercially minded Management Accountant step successfully into a Finance Business Partner role?
Could somebody from a different sector bring systems, transformation or leadership experience that the business doesn't currently have?
Of course, relevant experience matters, but so does potential, capability and transferable experience. Sometimes the person who looks slightly different on paper is exactly the person who can bring something different to the business.
Look beyond geography
This is particularly important across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the East Midlands.
There are some fantastic businesses across our region, but specialist talent isn't distributed neatly around every town and city.
If the right person lives 45 miles away rather than 20, should that automatically end the conversation?
Perhaps not, hybrid working, flexible hours and changing working patterns have altered what's possible.
Instead of asking:
"Does this person live close enough?"
Perhaps we should sometimes ask:
"What would need to happen to make this opportunity work for the right person?"
That's a very different recruitment conversation.
Look beyond people actively searching for jobs
This may be the most important boundary of all, many of the best candidates aren't looking. They're performing well, valued by their employer, earning good money and they probably aren't spending their evenings scrolling through job adverts.
So why would they move?
Usually because somebody has taken the time to understand what they want from the next stage of their career and introduced them to an opportunity worth considering.
That's why relationships still matter enormously in recruitment.
A database can tell you where somebody works.
A conversation can tell you what might make them move.
There's a huge difference.
Employers may need to remove boundaries too
"Know No Boundaries" isn't just about how recruiters search, sometimes it's about challenging the recruitment brief itself.
Does the candidate genuinely need ten years' experience?
Do they really need to come from exactly the same industry?
Does the role have to be five days a week in the office?
Does somebody need to have managed exactly the same size team?
Could an ambitious candidate stepping up outperform somebody who has already been doing the job for years?
Could someone from another sector introduce ideas, processes or perspectives the business doesn't currently have?
There will always be non-negotiables.
But it's worth distinguishing between what is genuinely essential and what has simply always been preferred.
AI will make this even more important
AI is going to change recruitment, in many ways, it already has. It can help us search faster, analyse information, identify potential candidates, understand markets and automate repetitive work.
That's exciting.
But there's an important distinction:
Technology can help identify candidates. It doesn't automatically identify the right candidate.
That's where human judgement remains so important.
Understanding the business.
Understanding the person.
Challenging assumptions.
Recognising potential.
Knowing when somebody who doesn't tick every box deserves a conversation.
And understanding what might persuade an exceptional person to listen.
AI should help recruiters remove boundaries.
It shouldn't create a new set of them.
So what does "Know No Boundaries" mean at Chase & Holland?
We recruit across Accountancy & Finance, Human Resources, Manufacturing & Operations, Supply Chain & Procurement, Sales & Marketing and Customer Services & Office Support.
But whatever the specialism, our philosophy is the same.
Don't stop at the obvious candidate.
Don't automatically reject someone because their job title is different.
Don't assume the best candidates are actively looking.
Don't let geography close down a conversation unnecessarily.
Don't confuse the CV that matches the most keywords with the person who could make the biggest impact.
And above all:
Don't stop searching because you've found somebody who can do the job.
Keep looking for somebody who can make a difference.
That's what Know No Boundaries means to us.
And in a recruitment market where genuinely good people remain difficult to find, we think that matters more than ever.
Chase & Holland Recruitment
Know No Boundaries.
