It may seem counterintuitive, but it's true: The best potential employees for PR firms are often those who have never worked at agencies. While there's no doubt that traditional PR backgrounds and communication skill sets will always be valuable to our industry, more and more firms are realizing that non-traditional hires bring new perspectives and experiences that can jump-start company growth and enhance the value offered to clients.

Firms may consider looking to complement its team of communication professionals with subject-matter experts. Individuals who have worked in corporations or government are often great candidates for agency jobs. They bring specialized industry expertise and institutional knowledge that can complement a firm's broader communication service offering, rounding out an agency's services and enriching the value of what is offered to clients.

Non-agency candidates often have strong networks within their previous industries, which may help to raise a firm's visibility and expand its own network of potential business partners. But the firm isn't the only one to benefit; non-traditional hires are happy, too. Many say that getting to work with a number of clients and applying their skills and experience to a variety of business challenges are among the best parts about moving to an agency.

"Non-traditional hires at the mid- to senior-level are absolutely integral to our human resources strategy," says Neal Cohen, CEO of APCO's Americas region. "We discovered early on that achieving APCO's global business objectives would depend on having a high-performing team with a broad base of experiences and a diverse set of skills."

Of course, there are a couple of challenges when onboarding non-traditional hires. Special attention needs to be given to helping them understand and adjust to how a service firm works, both from a cultural perspective and from an operational standpoint. It can be difficult to shift to a client-focused approach if the new hire has spent his or her career focused on the inner workings of a single business. The time-driven nature of agency work may require some adjustment as well. Not all non-traditional hires are going to have the core skill sets in project management and business development that are typically expected from their PR peers. This requires thought about how their skills can complement their PR counterparts while they learn the business. 

It's also important to remember to promote the expertise of new, non-traditional hires to traditional employees. Long-time agency staff may not immediately see opportunities to integrate a new hire's specialized skills, so allow some time for idea-sharing. 

When considering how to incorporate non-traditional employees to the agency world, two-way networking is crucial. Host a welcome reception at the agency, and invite current clients, the new hire's former professional colleagues and contacts, as well as agency colleagues to the event. This can be a great way to elevate internal awareness of the new employee, their network and background, while also introducing additional members of the individual's professional network to the agency and its services. If successfully executed, non-traditional hiring can elevate a PR firm to a new level of high-value expertise and client service.