Will this learning phase be without its hiccups? Of course not. Adam shared a memorable anecdote from his first farm visit when he told a farmer his calves were “cute”. I think we can all imagine the look he got from his prospective customer! The Benefits for Employers The advantages of hiring outside the traditional agricultural talent pool are significant. Luke highlights the most immediate benefit: access to a broader range of candidates. When recruiting, he looks for sector knowledge, prior experience in the role, attitude, personality, and cultural fit - but admits that finding all of these in one person is rare. Trade-offs are inevitable, and for Luke, sector knowledge is the most flexible because it’s the easiest to teach. For Laura, the key benefit is “diversity of thought”, bringing in people who challenge the status quo rather than doing things simply because “that’s the way you’ve always done it.” Adam echoes this sentiment, crediting his success to challenging industry norms and applying ideas from other sectors, for example convincing a previous employer to build a telesales team when the rest of the industry was obsessed with field sales: “ I challenged other people in the industry, and it worked… You don’t need to be from the industry. ” Beyond innovation, there’s a pressing strategic reason to broaden hiring criteria: succession. Agriculture faces a looming retirement wave among experienced professionals. As Laura warns: “ The biggest challenge agriculture has is that all the people with all the knowledge are going to retire at the same time… and we don’t look outside the pool enough. ” Continuing to hire only from within risks a severe knowledge gap and a lack of fresh talent to carry the industry forward. Bringing in people from outside the sector not only widens the talent pool but also ensures continuity, innovation, and resilience for the future. Final Thoughts Having an agricultural background will always be an advantage, and we’re certainly not suggesting that industry knowledge isn’t important. It absolutely is if you want to provide a premium service. However, given the talent shortages agriculture faces, it may be prudent for employers to look beyond sector experience and prioritise core skills first. As experienced professionals retire and take decades of knowledge with them, investing in strong product and industry training becomes essential. This approach allows new hires from outside the sector to build expertise on the job and successfully adapt, as is common practice in many other industries. At De Lacy Executive, we’ve seen this shift firsthand. For years, we recruited exclusively from within agriculture. That changed when Ollie joined us. While he had some agricultural experience at a competitor, his success proved that with the right attitude and support, people can learn the industry and thrive. Ollie brought over a decade of recruitment expertise and helped modernise our practices, delivering results and bringing many of the benefits discussed earlier: fresh perspectives, transferable skills, and adaptability. We still value sector knowledge and it remains a key differentiator between us and some of our competition, but we’ve softened expectations of prior agricultural experience. With the knowledge already in our team, rigorous training, and regular client visits, we can get new hires up to speed quickly. This approach has opened a wider talent pool and strengthened our ability to provide exceptional service. 20 25 Years of De Lacy Executive recruitment
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQyMDk=