Should we really be hiring for experience… or potential?

If your answer is “always on experience,” you might be filtering out your best future performers.

Story 1: The experience obsession
A colleague of mine graduated as an Occupational Therapist and applied for an entry-level role in a regional healthcare organisation. However, the job ad required… “3 years of prior experience”so she couldn’t even apply for the job she had literally just trained for. Instead, she was offered an interim admin role supporting the successful candidate – someone with over 7 years’ experience. But here is the twist: That (7 year) experienced hire was using outdated techniques that are no longer taught. So, the “inexperienced” graduate had the most current knowledge and could have flourished in the role… but didn’t have the required number of years experience on the CV.

Does this make you wonder what we’re really screening for when we ask for experience?

Story 2: The reality check.
There are moments where experience genuinely matters such as specialist roles, high-risk environments, urgent delivery. Some examples: most insurance companies won’t insure drivers of certain specialist vehicles unless they have a certain number of years experience behind the wheel. Certain high-rise construction companies won’t take on inexperienced staff unless they have spent time working under direct supervision.  Many specialist schools won’t use inexperienced supply teachers to cover for absent staff simply because their lack of experience and classroom presence may cause an urgent situation to become even worse. Hiring purely on potential in these cases can be a costly mistake.

So, what should we do?

Hire for experience when you must — but be brutally honest about how much is actually necessary.
Hire for potential when you can — because every single hire, no matter how senior, still carries risk and room to grow.
There is no such thing as a 100% perfect match. Every hire is a bet on future capability.

The big question we should ask is: Are your hiring criteria predicting performance… or just protecting comfort?

About the Author: Nikky Van Bommel

Nikky van Bommel is the Marketing Director for Big 5 Assessments and has worked in the Psychometric Testing industry for over 10 years. Nikky is responsible for all marketing and social media for the organisation.