Within the connectivity industry, talent shortages and lack of diversity are rife. On Episode 25 of The Connectivity Matters Podcast we spoke with Jennifer Montague, the VP of Growth at Onomondo, about how she is expanding her team. Here are her insights.

How has hiring been in the last 12-18 months, from a high-level perspective?

People are having a lot of trouble trying to find the right role. As a manager, I don’t want to say hiring has been easy, but there’s been a lot of talent to choose from, which can be good and bad. If you go to a restaurant with a 60-page menu, you can’t really decide what to eat. It’s the same with hiring. I’ve had up to 300 applications for roles, which is a lot to choose from. 

My advice, particularly when it comes to startups, is to know your numbers. In this environment, the money is just all over the place, and it’s growth at all costs. We’re hiring left, right and centre, but you have to prove the value that you’re bringing in, which is why I say ‘know your numbers’ and make sure you keep track of your hires’ outcomes. Look for people who have had an impact, but also for their ambition and potential.

How has your hiring process changed since you’ve grown as a business? 

When you’re a startup, you want generalists who can wear a bunch of different hats. As you get into scale up, you want specialists. You want the people who only do one thing, but they’re damn good at it. That’s always an interesting transition for me. You hire people who start the marketing from nothing, and they’ve done all the hard work and heavy lifting, but suddenly, you reach a point where you don’t need them anymore. That is a really bad feeling for everyone because you want to show appreciation, but you also need specialists in SEO, paid search, or full-stack development and no longer have space for those generalists. 

You’re now hiring based on applications rather than headhunting. How has that affected diversity?

It’s definitely brought out the importance of looking for the potential of each individual. Now, when you’re looking for one particular role, and you see all these people can do the job, then you have to assess what else they bring to the table. Frankly speaking, I live in a very homogenous community. Denmark isn’t really known for a lot of diversity. At the moment, my company’s policy is not to hire remote-only positions, so you have to be physically present and able to commute to the office. That reduces the pool of applicants that I can look for. 

When it comes to one of the things I have done, I’ve added a blurb to my job posts about not ticking every single box because traditionally, women and people of colour will not apply for a job unless they tick every single box. I always say that if you think you can bring something to the table, please apply. I can’t comment on whether I’ve seen a difference in the applicants, but people have been commenting that they were more comfortable applying, knowing that it’s okay not to tick every box. 

The other thing is not looking for a traditional background or education but interviewing for ambitions and motivations, like what you want to do and why you want to do it. That’s helped us take the blinders off. It’s not about whether they fit into this box or not. It’s actually about ‘Do I want to work with this person?’ That helps increase the likelihood of getting non-traditional candidates into a role. 

To hear more about hiring in the connectivity sector, tune into Episode 25 of The Connectivity Matters Podcast here. 

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