If you recruit, at any level, chances are you’re overlooking potentially excellent candidates in the mistaken belief that lack of experience makes them unsuitable for the job.

Here’s why the person you think is perfect, probably isn’t.

1. Their experience – it might seem a perfect fit, but previous experience, even significant levels, have absolutely no correlation with future success in a role.

Recruitment is one of the best examples of where the internet has had a huge impact, and not just for the better. It is now so easy to both advertise a job and apply for one that the volumes involved in processing applications are exponentially bigger than they were 10 years ago. Couple that with a poor global economy and its no surprise that recruiters are inundated with applicants.

In these circumstances, what other choice do recruiters have than to stick to some hard and fast measures of suitability when it comes to selecting potential candidates? And what better criteria to apply than previous experience, right? Wrong!

On the face of it, using previous experience as the core selection criteria would seem like a good idea – if they’ve done it before they can do it again. Well, unfortunately research and experience shows that this just isn’t the case. Used alone, previous experience is actually a lousy predictor of future performance in a role and, therefore suitability. Using this criteria alone, the best (and I mean the very best) you can expect in terms of hiring accuracy is around 20 – 25%.

This is because, when it comes to a person’s capability to succeed in the future, there are a number of other criteria that have to be taken into account in order to create the conditions for success for that particular person. We’ll start with….

2. Their motivations – do you know what they are? You might have asked them questions around this in the interview, but without proper in-depth assessment you won’t really have a clue. Only what they want you to think.

Understanding a person’s motivations is one of the other key factors in determining an individual’s potential to succeed in your organisation. Motivations are a key factor in driving behaviour – another key point, discussed below – and taking time out to understand these is fundamental. And no, asking them questions like “are you money motivated?”, or worse, “what motivates you?” is not a good way to understand what motivates a person.

Motivations are complex and rarely obvious. A person’s personal and work motivations are inextricably linked so often the only way you can understand these, particularly in the early stages of an application, is to use a robust tool.

3. Their values – do you understand what their deep-rooted belief system is? Do you care?

You should. Values drive behaviour and are hard to mask in the long-term but dead easy to mask in the short-term – like in an interview!

Your personal values and belief system, like your intellect – another important point below – are set from a very young age. Along with your motivations, these shape the very being that you are. Our values are deep set – which means they rarely change, if ever. Yet it can be very hard to determine an individual’s values even during an extended interview process. Not only are they hard to see, they are easy to mask, which means it won’t be until long past the hiring date that the evidence of a misalignment between the values of the organisation and the individual become apparent, by which time it’s usually too late – or too costly – to do anything about it.

4. Their intellectual horsepower – you don’t need a rocket scientist for every job, but the right level of intellect, or rather the appropriate ability to take in, process and retain information is key.

We hear this a lot: “They need to be bright!”  But how are you assessing this? From their grade sheets? Oh dear. Academic achievement, like experience, has long been a marker of success and therefore a sign of ‘intelligence’. The truth is that intelligence, and how you measure it, is a very complex area. And looking at grade average is a very limiting way of doing so. Different situations require different approaches to problem solving and to fully understand the most appropriate level – and type – of intellect required for a role and whether an individual applicant has what it takes, you need to know what you are measuring and why.

Also, whilst you might want to recruit “the brightest”, often the role in question simply does not require the level of intellectual horsepower that you think it does. The intellectual requirement of the role should be measured properly and the subsequent requirement should be tested properly with the applicant.

5. Their behaviour – a person’s behaviour over the long-term is significantly influenced by their values and motivations (yes, them again!) and unless you are measuring those properly – see above – and also assessing behaviour properly using, for example, a behavioural event interview, all you’re witnessing is an act.

All of the above factors are key, yet it is in the behaviour of the individual that the combination and implications of these factors actually reveal themselves. Behaviour is easy to manipulate, especially in a standard interview. It is also, in the longer term hard to change. Not impossible, but without the right personal intent and incentive to do so, trying to adapt an individual’s behaviour when you realise they are not behaving in the way that is congruent with the culture of the organisation is time consuming and very difficult. And by the time you realise, the damage is already done.

Adopting a more structured approach to your selection, for example a behavioural event interview, significantly helps identify those candidates that have the right behaviours required for the role. It also helps to have an accurate idea before you start the hiring process of the actual behaviours required!

Whilst a job role might look and sound the same from organisation to organisation, the fact is that culture, focus and environment are all very different and as such it is vital that there is alignment between these and those of the candidates.

Understanding all these different elements – both individually and as a combined piece of insight – will vastly improve your understanding of the individual concerned. Ultimately, it’ll improve your hiring accuracy too.