Hiring a candidate or a  perfect fit employee depends on a plethora of factors. Every recruiter tends to have a tick list of things to consider when recruiting employees. High on the list may contain relevant industry experience. While undoubtedly, this is significant for some roles. But sometimes we would argue that this can become restrictive when you probably miss out star candidates who can contribute highly to the success of your business. We know that it’s not your usual approach to recruiting the right employee, so why does it work? Scroll down to know further.

Industry Experience – The Recruitment Must-have

When you have a browse through any vacancy listings, one word, in particular, will stand out. And that is experience. The youngest recruits lament how to get it, and every career-driven individual focuses on obtaining it. Experience is the gold standard we often use to judge applicants on. It makes sense in many respects as it’s a crude measure of achievement. It reassures us that our new employee will be aware of what they are doing from the very first day.

However, when you become a crude measure of potential success, it can shut the door on potential. Here we are not talking about the potential someone will show if only they could get experience. No, we’re talking about the potential to add value from day one precisely because their experience isn’t from within the same niche. So how is this possible?

Skills vs. Experience

Experience is a measure of attainment. It leaves us asking how can we gauge value in a potential employee better. On the other hand, talent looks at proven skills on a detailed level that you can see how skills are transferable. It doesn’t view recruitment as a matching exercise between job description and resume, but also as an opportunity to find the right person and drive the business forward.

While this may mean there is an overlap between a person’s experience and their proven skills, they don’t have to go hand in hand. In fact, with transferable skills, you may indeed get greater value drawing on experience earned elsewhere. The business acumens that an employee nurtured in different work environments can demonstrate invaluable to drive change and success. Removing this introspective look that many higher levels of industry suffer from can be a stepping-stone to stimulate the company’s growth.

Furthermore, as you get higher up in the organisational chart, your pool of available candidates also shrinks. By insisting on industry experience, you’re often making the pool impossibly small to a degree where your future gets stunted. Instead of focusing on skills, and importantly, transferable skills, you should bring your attention back to talent alone.

Things to look for when recruiting employees or hiring a candidate.

Industry experience is essential sometimes but not necessarily. Uncovering if it is necessary for a particular vacancy requires an in-depth understanding of the vacant job role, the organisation, and your aims for the future. It will determine just how valuable experience is versus an individual with proved skills. When we concentrate on the skills, we can draw up a more perfect profile of what an exemplary candidate might look like.

Instead of homing in on experience alone, you would advocate placing a preference on these transferable skills while hiring a candidate:

Business acumen: How successful has the person been at navigating various business situations with proven success against both risks and objectives?

Engagement: How engaged are they in their firm’s vision? Do you wish to have the same engagement in your executive levels?

Dynamism: Do the candidate have a proven track record of instigating, managing and facilitating change, using it as an opportunity?

Skills in action: Is there evidence of their expertise in action, even if they don’t tally with your day-to-day tasks?

Difference: What can the candidate add that is different from which you already have?

Responsiveness: How does the individual operate or thrive in different situations?

Hiring the right employee should never be a tick box exercise. Even if relevant industry experience is crucial to you, you need to know why. Be sure of your criteria and look beyond the standard when considering things to look for when hiring employees.

Hiring a candidate is never so easy with Bangalore secretary.

Call us at # +91 7795547089 or mail us at team@bssrecruit.com on Hiring a candidate.

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