The HR Blind Spot That’s Costing You Your Best Talent
- Renea Lewis
- Dec 4
- 4 min read
By Renea Lewis, Fractional Marketing Communications Consultant & Founder, WriterReneaMultimedia
Rogue Riffs Series #8
You can have two decades of proof that you know how to grow brands, shift customer behavior, and build narratives that move markets—and still be told you’re “not the right fit.”
Not because of your skills. Not because of your experience. But because your résumé doesn’t mirror the last person who sat in the job.
This is the quiet crisis in modern hiring: Companies say they want innovation, yet their hiring systems filter out the people most capable of delivering it.
The Industry Wall That Shouldn’t Exist
HR teams and hiring managers often write job descriptions that sound like invitations to join an exclusive club. They want “fresh perspective” but only if it looks, sounds, and behaves exactly like their industry’s norm.
But the data doesn’t support the fear of hiring cross-industry talent:
91% of talent leaders rank communication, creativity, adaptability, and critical thinking as the strongest predictors of long-term success (LinkedIn Global Talent Trends Report, 2024).
45% of employers acknowledge their own job descriptions unintentionally eliminate candidates with transferable skills (McKinsey & Company, Workforce Skills Mismatch Report, 2023).
Companies that hire cross-industry talent in marketing, creative, communications, and tech roles see stronger innovation velocity and faster adaptation during economic shifts (McKinsey & Company, 2022).
Marketing, creative strategy, communications, and technology are not industry-defined professions. They’re human-behavior professions. The context changes. The core capability doesn’t.
Why This Bias Keeps Showing Up
Hiring managers often lean on industry familiarity because it feels safer. ATS systems reinforce this by rewarding sameness. Consultants tell companies they need “deep industry vertical alignment.” Recruiters want candidates who “speak the language.”
But fluency is not the same thing as capability. A professional who can decode patterns, build clarity, and generate insight will succeed across industries because they understand the people behind the product—not just the jargon in the office.
Cross-Industry Talent Is a Competitive Advantage
A communicator from tech brings precision and clarity into veterinary medicine. A marketer from retail brings customer psychology into healthcare. A creator from nonprofit advocacy brings emotionally resonant storytelling into B2B industries that desperately need it. A product strategist from finance brings structure and compliance rigor into sectors built on speed over discipline.
Breakthrough thinking lives in the intersections—not inside a single vertical.
The Riffs
Riff 1: Familiarity Isn’t a Qualification
The hiring world keeps treating “industry familiarity” as if it’s the same thing as strategic intelligence. It isn’t. Familiarity makes onboarding easier, not outcomes better. Companies forget that innovation rarely comes from the people who’ve memorized the playbook. It comes from the ones who question why the playbook exists in the first place.
Riff 2: Creativity Lives in the Intersections
The best ideas are born in the spaces where disciplines collide. A UX designer who’s worked in both retail and healthcare sees pain points no single industry could teach. A marketer who’s built campaigns for nonprofits, tech, and animal health doesn’t carry bias—she carries instinct. When teams only hire from within their own walls, they only get ideas shaped by those same walls.
Riff 3: Talent Is Broader Than Titles
Industries name roles like badges: Director, Manager, Specialist, Strategist. But titles rarely capture capability. The candidate who scaled a startup team of three may understand operational communication better than someone who spent ten years in a Fortune 500 silo. Hiring for the title instead of the talent is how companies end up overpaying for experience while underutilizing potential.
7 Tips for Hiring Managers: How to Evaluate Talent Beyond Industry Walls
Use these when reviewing marketing, communications, creative, and tech candidates.
1. Look for Problem-Solving Patterns, Not Industry Buzzwords
If they’ve solved similar challenges in different contexts, that’s value—not a red flag.
2. Prioritize Adaptability Over Tenure
A candidate who has succeeded in multiple environments will adjust faster than someone who’s only thrived in one.
3. Evaluate How They Think, Not Just What They’ve Done
Ask about frameworks, reasoning, and decision-making. Transferability shows up in how someone approaches a challenge.
4. Stop Using Job Titles as a Competency Proxy
Industries name roles differently. A “Director” in one sector is a “Manager” in another—and neither title reveals actual skill.
5. Look for Evidence of Cross-Functional Collaboration
People who’ve worked across teams and disciplines transition more smoothly into new industries.
6. Ask for Proof of Learning Velocity
What have they picked up quickly? How do they approach unfamiliar information? Learning speed matters more than sector knowledge.
7. Consider Fractional Talent to Test What You Truly Need
Bringing in a fractional strategist or consultant gives you insight without long-term risk—and often clarifies the real gaps on your team.
Reflection
Growth doesn’t come from recycling the same thinking or hiring only from the same pool. It comes from leaders willing to imagine something—and someone—different.
If your organization is rethinking how it hires, communicates, or evolves, that’s the work I support as a Fractional Marketing & Communications Consultant at WriterReneaMultimedia.com. When you’re ready to shape a story—and a team—that moves forward instead of sideways, you know where to find me.
References
LinkedIn. (2024). Global Talent Trends Report. LinkedIn Corporation. https://www.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/global-talent-trends McKinsey & Company. (2023). Help Wanted: Addressing the Workforce Skills Mismatch. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights McKinsey & Company. (2022). How Cross-functional and Cross-industry Talent Accelerates Innovation. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights
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