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We have been hard wired over decades to trust the ‘experience brings results’ approach. How many times do we read 'You must have 8 years’ experience, with 3 years in the same role' etc.

Look around your office and ask yourself if best performers are those who have the most years of experience? Some will be of course, but I suspect not in many cases. Simple reason for this; doing something for a long time is a not a strong indicator of current/future performance. Capabilities and skills are.

So why then, do we not hire with a more capability based mindset?

It is much more difficult to assess in interview of course and CV's (which will disappear soon enough) offer a window to people's past experience rather than their future capabilities. Measuring capabilities is in short more difficult, but the tools and approaches are now out there to do this.

Now don't get me wrong, there is always a place for experience. I hope my own grey hairs make me more employable than I was 10 years ago. I bet most of us would not like to jump on a plane with a trainee pilot even if he ranks first on all the relevant aptitude tests. There are other examples like this, but most of us do not work in such roles. Some examples:

• Customer service people need to have high level interpersonal sensitivity and will outperform those with lower levels in the long run, regardless of experience.
• Hire sales people who have high level of resilience rather than years of sales experience.
•  Hire finance professionals with high levels of attention to detail. Those who lack this but have 15 year of experience, are more likely to make mistakes that are costly.
• Hire leaders who have good leadership skills not those who have been doing it a long time.

In time, this approach may become mainstream and will upend the recruitment process and the recruitment industry - good!

To find out more, contact Chris Wilson, Global Head - Client Services at [email protected]