RACHEL NIXON
"T
alent is the biggest driver
of success, and a recruiter's
job is to get the talent,"
writes Caroline Stokes in her new book,
Elephants Before Unicorns: Emotionally
Intelligent HR Strategies to Save Your Com-
pany. The self-described human capital
entrepreneur did marketing and PR for
firms like Sony Computer Entertainment
Europe and Nokia Corp. before mov-
ing from the U.K. to Vancouver in 2006.
Seven years later, after a stint as a B.C.-
based executive search partner and
coach for the London office of Australia-
headquartered Natural Selection Group,
Stokes launched Forward, a head-
hunting and coaching firm with clients
that include Electronic Arts Canada and
Microsoft Canada.
How do you find the right people for an
organization?
Start by figuring out where the organiza-
tion is going, what problems it needs to
solve and what sort of people it needs to
solve them. That requires lots of conver-
sations beyond the usual, Let's put an
advert up and then interview a whole
bunch of candidates. People get very frus-
trated when that typical process happens
because you're getting 100 applicants that
aren't applicable. Does the job description
really resonate with where the company
is going and what the opportunity is?
48 BCBUSINESS FEBRUARY 2020
Veteran Vancouver
headhunter Caroline
Stokes shares her
experience on what
it takes to draw the
best candidates
to your team
Hire Power
2020
HR
REPORT
TALENT SCOUT
Stokes, shown with
her recent book,
knows what to look
for in a new recruit