The curious case of experience

Now that I have your attention, let me start by stating what I mean by it: Experience, that unique word which means so much in the work environment, is sought by every manager. Everyone wants to hire a team member who has the right “experience” in doing the job that he/she is being hired for. When you read the previous statement, you may wonder as to what is wrong with that? Why does this need any kind of scrutiny? And, you would be right!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking to hire a person with the right kind of experience for doing a particular job. After all, the organization is paying good money for their services. When one hires someone with experience, as a manager, one does not need to spend too much time on explaining the basics of the work to the new hire. That time would be spent on familiarizing the person with the organization, its people, its culture, its values and also the scope of work. The time to market improves significantly in such situations. Yet, there remain a few questions in my mind regarding the experience that is sought by managers.

The questions:

1.      What is relevant in the experience that a person carries?

2.      Is success (or failure) of the past, a true indicator of the future performance?

3.      Does experience, if unrelated to the present role, hold any good?

4.      Does experience make up for knowledge and attitude?

I will be attempting to explain the thought behind these questions and why I carry them along every day. Let me attempt these one by one – When I ask what is relevant in the experience, there is a specific thought in my mind. If a person has worked in a similar role in another organization, s/he will have an experience of the role in that organization’s context. The process, policies and procedures of the new organization will be different and the previous experience will need to be forgotten and new experiences need to be inculcated for the person to start performing in the new workplace. Isn’t this what we keep telling our new joiners? Unlearn your past and learn “our way”? So, relevance of experience is a context which one needs to revisit.

The 2nd question which needs to be explored is the performance criteria applied with experience. All hiring managers I know only want to hire candidates who are performers. That is always a good idea, right? A person has performed in the past, has the taste of success and is likely to do well in future due to having the habit of being successful. Nothing can go wrong with this criteria…or can it? Have we not all come across cases where a very successful candidate in one organization had a complete meltdown in the next and became an average and even poor performer? Why does that happen? What is the missing link? How do we identify a person with higher potential to perform beyond the traditional domain of success?

My favourite question, is the 3rd one actually. What if a person has experience, but in a different field? For example, would a hiring manager like to consider someone for selling financial products, when the candidates experience has been in FMCG only? If a person has experience managing a team of people in a particular function, will the person be able to manage a team in a different function? Will any hiring manager, ever take that risk? When it comes to growing people within the organization, we are comfortable taking that risk. We allow cross-functional movement and give people growth in new roles. Yet, when it comes to hiring from outside, we show a marked reluctance to do the same. The objection is clear – the person from outside is an unknown entity and hence, it is a high risk. Actually, it is the same risk as an internal cross-functional movement, but few are willing to accept the risk.

Finally, does experience make up for knowledge and attitude? I will leave that question alone as I think is rhetorical in nature. Of course it doesn’t!

Now, my friends, I leave this article with a request to all of you – please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions. Remember, no opinion is right or wrong – it is simply a perspective.