Experienced Professionals vs. Freshers: Which One Should You Hire?

The growth of a business depends on two major factors: the revenue model and the people who drive the business. The companies that can develop innovative revenue models and hire great people tend to grow faster than the others. Once you have a business model in place, you need the right people to execute it.

Hiring the right employees is a pretty difficult task. It becomes even more challenging if you are trying to build a company from scratch. Several constraints may stop you from hiring the best of the people even if you are willing to take the risk of hiring them. In many cases, it ‘s hard to find the right talent for startups even if they have a big enough budget and a good business model. In such cases, you need to evaluate the available pool of candidates and select the best among them.

The moment you want to expand the business, you need people to drive core as well as support functions of the company. One pertinent issue arises regarding the work experience of prospective employees. On one hand, you have experienced professionals who have been there and done similar work, while on the contrary, there are fresh college graduates (or “freshers”) who are enthusiastic about making a mark for themselves in the corporate world.

Usually, larger firms have a blend of both types of professionals. However, the same strategy can’t work for startups due to budget constraints, and it requires efficient judgment on the part of business owners to make the appropriate selection of candidates. Here is a quick guide to help you make the right decision:

When to Hire Experienced Professionals

• If the firm doesn’t have anyone with a particular skill set: freshers wouldn’t fill the gap, as they will take a lot of time to learn the skills on their own.
• When internal people are extremely busy and can’t take time to train fresh talent
• If the role is very critical and any mistake can lead to severe consequences for the business
• If the position requires people management: never entrust the responsibilities of managing people to those who have not done it before. It is better to promote internal talent than hiring a fresh graduate from a top management school. And it is much better to hire an external expert who has the requisite competencies.
• If the business is seeing hyper growth
• When the job role requires very niche skills and competencies

Don’t hire experienced professionals just for their technical expertise until the position requires a niche skill. Senior professionals must possess leadership skills so that, if the need arises, they can build and manage a team in future.

When to Hire Fresh Talent

• If you have the internal expertise in a particular field
• When the internal team is willing to train and nurture talent
• If the job role involves only small risks
• If you have limited budget
• If the business is witnessing average growth rate and you have sufficient time to train new talent
• If the position doesn’t exist in the market and you need to mold new talent according to your specific requirement

While hiring fresh college graduates, you should evaluate them on cultural compatibility, communication skills, energy, work ethic and their willingness to excel in their respective fields.

Conclusion

Hiring decisions will determine how far a startup will go. This is an area where sound judgment plays a critical role. Every entrepreneur makes some initial hiring blunders. Sometimes, business owners trust wrong people to do the right things. And that is why bad things happen in an organization despite best intentions and significant efforts by people involved.

Therefore, it is important for you to observe your people skills and related decisions and take corrective actions as and when required. Hiring the right talent is not a one-time job but a continuous learning process.

When you hire experienced professionals, ensure that they understand the criticality of their role, and current and future responsibilities. If you decide to hire fresh college graduates, you need to invest significant time in developing their skills and competencies. Make sure that you have the sufficient time; otherwise, hiring freshers will prove to be counter-productive for the organization.

Once you make the final decision to hire either experienced professionals or freshers, make sure that you review and monitor their performances closely and provide timely feedback.

Anthony Bergs is a project manager at Writers Per Hour. He always keeps an eye on the marketing sector to implement the best innovations into the strategies that he builds. He’s always open for new connections and partnerships.