“There shouldn’t be those kind of barriers for entry”: Canva’s head of people on finding talent amid a skills shortage

With skills shortages set to constrain Australian businesses over the next 12 months, Canva’s global head of people says companies can unearth hidden talent and turbocharge workplace culture by resetting their hiring criteria.

A new CPA Australia survey of more than 1000 people found 46% saw skills shortages as their number one challenge in the year ahead, ahead of rising costs, wage increases, and growing interest rates.

The data reflects fears over gaps in the nation’s skills mix, and the long-term impacts of Australia’s closed border policy, which saw migration evaporate through much of the pandemic.

In that war for talent, Canva sits as an outlier: the Australian digital design juggernaut now fields in excess of 300,000 job applications a year, the company says, with staff attrition at a stable level.

But companies without Canva’s superstar status and holistic company culture can still learn from its deliberate hiring practices, says Jennie Rogerson, Canva’s head of people.

“I think, especially when you’re hiring, you can really get stuck in a mindset of going for the same kind of person, the same background, the same skills,” Rogerson told SmartCompany.

The company dropped its university degree requirements several years back, Rogerson says, in a bid to find talent outside the traditional tech talent pipeline who may have been discouraged by earlier job criteria.

“And we see no difference in what we’re able to ship,” she said.

“And obviously, people without university degrees do amazing things all of the time.

“There shouldn’t be those kind of barriers for entry. And reducing that… it’s something that we’ve actually seen enormous growth because of that, not in spite of it.”

Rogerson says the push to broaden Canva’s hiring pathways resonated with her own personal experience, having transitioned from an executive assistant, to working in leadership operations, to her head of people role within 18 months.

“It’s something I feel deeply passionate about,” she said.

“Because you have no idea if you’re not looking or open to the idea that people have incredible skills that are very open to fluidity.”

The company now encourages would-be workers to submit applications even if they’re not 100% certain they meet all the job ad criteria, Rogerson says.

Openness to a variety of candidates doesn’t mean throwing workers into roles well beyond their range; rather, it is a recognition that skills “are hidden in different pockets and different areas of just waiting to be tapped into”, she adds.

That is not to say Canva is immune to the same challenges facing the broader Australian tech sector — including market uncertainty that has deterred companies from hiring or resulted in staff layoffs.

Canva “made adjustments” to its 2022 hiring plans when market volatility set in earlier this year, Rogerson says.

The company needed to “make sure the roles that we were prioritising this year were the ones that are gonna have the biggest impact on our goals”, she adds, saying Canva “didn’t want a team of 10,000 yet”.

But if Canva does dramatically increase its headcount to meet its goals — co-founder Melanie Perkins says Canva’s total addressable market is the entire world — a company culture aided and abetted by diverse hiring decisions will keep the company top of mind for applicants, Rogerson said.

“Diversity of backgrounds, ideas, perspectives, life experiences, that’s what actually makes a really strong culture,” she said.