Should You Hire Inexperienced New Hires? And If You Do, How to Train Them?

Newbie job seekers often hold the fear that they’ll be passed over in favor of more experienced talent.

Sometimes this is true: employers are looking for the most experienced talent available, but there is also something to be said for fresh, inexperienced employees.

Advantages of the Underqualified Hire

Perhaps one of the most obvious advantages of hiring someone fresh out of college or who may not have a lot of experience in the corporate world?

A fresh perspective.

There’s a lot to be said for hiring someone who’s outside of your industry bubble and still can look at things with a fresh perspective. There’s a lot of new, distinctive ideas and innovation that can come about when you take a chance and hire someone you might have initially seen as being underqualified.

Often when a new hire has little to no experience either in your industry or in the corporate world as a whole they may actually be able to create new solutions to preexisting problems.

Employees who don’t have a lengthy career history tend to be eager and seeking development opportunities. If you focus on training and development for these employees, you may be able to cultivate a long‐term talent superstar.

Another advantage is that you can train “under qualified” employees to become what your company needs, and they’re likely to have fewer bad habits that need to broken. It’s like starting with a blank canvas. For employers willing to take the chance and also invest in active training and development, the rewards can be immense.

There’s a move away from hiring candidates seen as overqualified. Overqualified employees may expect too much money, they may quickly become bored in a position or they may constantly be looking for the next offer.

Underqualified employees tend to be more eager, more enthusiastic and more affordable.

It’s a risk worth taking, but it’s only likely to pay off with a heavy focus on training.

The Current Entry‐Level Training Situation

Even though it would seem like training entry‐level employees would be a necessity, many companies still aren’t doing it.

A recent study conducted by Accenture Strategy showed that while 80 percent of Class of 2014 college graduates expected their first employer to provide a formalized training program, 52 percent of recent graduates said they received no training at their first job.

e‐Learning, Training and Development for Under Qualified Hires

With entry level and inexperienced employees, onboarding is much more important than it might be otherwise.