Experience vs. Potential

Talent acquisition has always been as much art as it is science. The science of it is the experience a candidate brings, and experience is quantitative, measurable, and more objective. The art of it is assessing the potential that a candidate with less experience might have, and potential is more qualitative, and requires taking a longer and deeper look into what a candidate could develop into. When sourcing for talent, recruiting professionals will often focus on candidates with a desired level of experience, which is why it’s what we list on our resumes. However, looking at experience alone could narrow your talent pool and cause you to overlook a lesser experienced applicants' prospects for being an asset to your organization. Unlike experience, potential is mostly subjective and open to interpretation, which can be unsettling for many hiring managers, and while opting for the more experienced candidate can provide some stability and fewer uncertainties, potential can also be valuable in providing fresh perspectives, energy, enthusiasm, and adapting to changes. Of course, not every role is right for this, some roles absolutely require a certain amount of practical experience, and a lesser experienced candidate would not be the right choice. The ideal candidate for most openings would be one with an interesting mix of both. There are elements to both hiring for experience and hiring for potential. Let’s look at a few.

Hiring for Experience?

? One of the main reasons’ organizations look to hire experience is they want someone who can “hit the ground running”, therefor more experienced candidates should be able to dive into their new role quickly and without much additional training.?

? Experience is often a source of best practices and lessons learned and can use hindsight in decision-making and problem solving.

? An experienced candidate will most likely require a higher salary. Even professional sports leagues have different pay ranges for rookies and veterans, placing a premium on experience. This could very well be the reason they are interviewing with you to begin with.

? An experienced candidate may quickly outgrow the role if there’s not a clear path for advancement and growth, which may be why they are interviewing with you to begin with.

? Transferable success - an individual’s experience with another organization doesn’t necessarily guarantee future success with yours. It’s like the disclaimer you get when you invest in the stock market, “past performance is not an indicator of future results”.

Hiring for Potential?

? Candidates who are lower in experience but higher in potential tend to adapt more quickly to change and usually have fewer intractable bad habits.

? High-potential individuals with less experience often demand a lower salary than their more experienced counterparts.

? Research shows that leveraging potential is not only good for retention, especially when assessing internal candidates, but also for overall performance.

When making a hiring decision between potential versus experience, many experts seem to agree that looking for a high-capacity learner, someone with initiative and integrity, can be more important than experience when filling an open position (again, depending on the nature of the role). Hiring for potential doesn’t mean you have to hire someone without any experience or industry-specific knowledge, however, it does mean being flexible in your requirements. Before you start sourcing candidates, determine what experience and skills are 100% critical to the role, and what can be learned on the job. Hiring managers need to understand (and be honest about) exactly what skills and experience are needed for success in the position. Even for leadership positions, HBR says, “Hire Leaders for What They Can Do, Not for What They Have Done.” So while the default is to look for applicants that have "X" years of experience, you’re just as likely to find success prioritizing potential. Once the goals are laid out, attracting and selecting the best candidate—and where to trade experience for potential — becomes clearer.