Nashville HR executive LaTosha Kerley is encouraging organizations to rethink how they evaluate talent, arguing that non-linear career paths reflect capabilities that standard hiring frameworks regularly miss.
NASHVILLE, TN / ACCESS Newswire / April 19, 2026 / The Assumption Problem in Talent Evaluation
Many organizations state that they value resilience, adaptability, and lived experience in their people. Fewer have examined whether their actual hiring and promotion practices reflect that commitment. LaTosha Kerley, an HR executive based in Nashville, Tennessee, has made bridging that gap a focus of her professional advocacy.
Kerley argues that candidates whose resumes show gaps, pivots, or unconventional education histories are often exactly the people organizations claim to want. The problem lies in the evaluation systems, which frequently screen for the opposite:
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Uninterrupted career progression.
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Credential-forward timelines.
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Career paths aligning with a narrow model of professional success.
What “Non-Linear” Actually Means
“For a long time, success was defined by one narrow model,” Kerley notes. “But real leadership is shaped over time through experience, reflection, and persistence, not by a flawless timeline.”
Kerley speaks from direct experience. A two-time high school dropout, she raised her children while pursuing her education, eventually earning a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from Strayer University. Her extensive career-spanning employment compliance, workforce strategy, employee relations, and talent management-was built on a foundation of persistence. This path, she says, equipped her with a firsthand understanding of what it takes to succeed when circumstances are not ideal.
A Practical Challenge for HR Professionals
Kerley is not calling for the elimination of standards; she is calling for an honest examination of which standards actually predict performance versus those that simply reflect institutional comfort.
Her challenge to hiring managers is straightforward: Review the assumptions embedded in your current processes. Identify where those assumptions may be filtering out people whose non-linear histories are evidence of the very capabilities you are seeking.
What Organizations Can Do
To move toward more inclusive and effective hiring, Kerley encourages leaders to:
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Audit Job Descriptions: Distinguish between requirements that are genuinely predictive of success and those that are merely proxies for familiarity.
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Redesign Interviews: Create space for candidates to speak to what they have learned, not just what they have done.
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Train Evaluators: Teach hiring teams to recognize the difference between a disqualifying gap and a growth period.
About LaTosha Kerley
LaTosha Kerley is an HR executive based in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from Strayer University and specializes in employment compliance, workforce strategy, employee relations, and organizational culture. Her professional writing and advocacy focus on building workplaces that recognize the full range of human experience.
For more information, visit: latoshakerley.com
Start with one area of your hiring or promotion process this week. Examine the criteria used and consider whether they reflect what actually predicts success in the role.
Media Contact
LaTosha Kerley
info@latoshakerley.com
https://latoshakerley.com/
SOURCE: LaTosha Kerley
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