When you’re looking to hire new talent, you’ll probably have a good idea about the type of person that will fit into your team well. In an ideal world, that candidate might have all the skills required for the job, relevant experience in a similar role and a personality that would fit perfectly with the rest of your team.
If you’re looking for a candidate to tick every single box on your wish list, you’re effectively looking for a unicorn and you’ll be looking for a long time. To strengthen your recruitment strategy, you should focus more on candidate potential than their direct experience.
Prioritising potential over experience is becoming increasingly important as the world of work we operate in now is one where many professionals are constantly changing and shifting careers. This is particularly true of younger generations who prefer agile working. While serial job-hopping may still be cause for concern, those looking for a career change may have a wealth of skills and experience to contribute and translate into high performance.
Hiring for potential over direct experience will immediately open up your talent pool. You could miss out on candidates who have the potential to be top performers in your company if you only consider those with the ideal experience.
For example, if you’re looking for a salesperson for your team with a couple of years of experience, you shouldn’t discount someone for having only 1-year experience. It’s worth exploring their motivations because they could be really passionate about your company or have an excellent work ethic and positive attitude. Characteristics like these will be more valuable in the long run than experience.
A huge benefit of hiring for potential over experience is that you can assess a candidate’s attitude, their ability to fit into an established team, and how well they work under pressure. These are all key performance indicators that can be overlooked if you focus too much on ensuring a candidate’s experience matches the role.
Hiring someone with less experience can also be beneficial as they can bring a fresh perspective, be easier to manage and be coached to suit how your business operates.
If a candidate is a good cultural fit, they should have strong potential to thrive within your working environment as their behaviours and beliefs are well-aligned with those of the company.
By spending less time focusing on whether candidates have direct experience, you’ll be able to better assess whether they are a good cultural fit. Cultural fit is important as it has a big impact on employees’ productivity, quality of work and ultimately their success as your company.
If you need any help with your recruitment strategy or finding high-quality talent for your team, get in touch with us today!
