What’s your talent strategy when skill requirements are shifting rapidly? What approaches have worked to keep your teams adaptable yet focused?

I want to comment on how our hiring has changed. Traditionally, the company hired for very specific job titles—specific technologies or roles like analyst, tester, or developer for a particular platform. The challenge was that if you ever asked those people to stretch themselves, they didn’t want to move beyond their specific role or technology. That’s always a problem for leadership. Now, all new hires are coming in as more of an engineer-type role, where we use them for whatever they’re capable of. We’re seeking people who want to keep learning and don’t get trapped in a single technology. We want universal players who are willing to lean into new areas like AI and configuration-based work, rather than those who only want to do one thing.

We have an innovation team, but our approach is to create fusion teams by bringing in individuals from the business. For example, if a project could impact operations or security, we include a cybersecurity SME; if it relates to health and safety, we bring in a subject matter expert from that area. We also augment the team with AI or machine learning engineers as needed. Beyond technical skills, we look for people who demonstrate a growth mindset or have contributed ideas through our idea management program. Being part of a high-visibility innovation project is one of the opportunities we offer for growth and development.

That’s the hard part. It’s really about looking for a growth mindset when hiring people who want to learn. We are also starting to focus more on candidates who are earlier in their careers and still motivated to learn different things, rather than those who have done the same thing forever and want to keep doing just that. For us, it’s mostly about mindset.