Pathways is
a recruiting company that puts meaning first.
the thought leader in meaningful work.
obsessed with building great companies.
a trusted partner in organizational development.
the inventor and practitioner of Essence Mining.
the foe of the hollow mission statement.
looking where our competitors aren't.
evidence based and results driven.
We are a talent acquisition and development firm with expertise in communication design and psychology. Our holistic approach, encompassing leadership training and coaching, interview and recruitment design, and one-on-one consultations, emphasizes the importance of meaningful work and understanding individuals’ relationship to their work.
Only through this unique model can meaningful connections be determined between candidates, employees and organizations. It is the discovery and development of these connections that achieves consistently better talent outcomes, better leadership, which in turn fuels growth and value.
A company’s most valuable and challenging asset is its people, who are infinitely more than a collection of skills and experiences. The stories of their lives, and the words and images they use to tell those stories give important clues to how they will respond to the dynamics of the workplace: change, interpersonal relations, management actions, difficulty, success… It gives insights to what they’ll commit their energy to.
Pathways collects stories from employees and stories from candidates that show us whether a candidate is likely to contribute to and strengthen an organization or wind up frustrated and frustrating. We mine meaning through a process we’ve developed over 27 years, called Essence Mining.
Why it works
Our approach is evidence based
When Pathways started, in the 1990s, we wondered why people with competitive skill sets didn’t always choose what seemed like the prime job opportunities. So, we asked them. And then we asked thousands more employees and candidates in interviews why they chose the jobs they did. We didn’t leave it at the standard, surface questions; we dug deeper, especially with candidates who had the most options. The data piled up and eventually the answer was undeniable: Meaning. No other reward from work comes close to competing with the experience of waking up every morning to go to work on something that you experience as personally meaningful.
This insight has proven consistent in more than 500 companies and 6 countries.
Our clients have found that leading and working from meaning transforms organizational culture, energizes personal development, and taps into a sustainable source of growth.
