When you’re hiring for an opening on your team, what best describes your approach?

Our reader poll today asks: When you’re hiring for an opening on your team, what best describes your approach? I hire someone who…

• Has a proven record of delivering in exactly that role.  8%
• Has a lot of experience with the role, but some growth ahead.  47%
• Doesn’t have much experience in that role, but they have a lot of potential.  45%

Leaving room for growth. The overwhelming majority of you (92%) are hiring people who have room to grow in the role you’re bringing them into. It’s all a question of how much risk you’re willing to take. It seems half of you are taking more risk and are willing to hire people with little experience but lots of potential. While that might lead to some failures along the way, it creates great upside, challenge, and growth potential for those employees. That growth should keep them engaged, lower attrition risk, and ultimately help you build the next generation of talent. Just be sure to give them the support they need to prevent them from floundering in the role. If you’re in the 8% who are only hiring people with the exact experience you need, recognize you’re taking little risk on their performance but you’re increasing the risk of boredom, disengagement, and ultimately attrition.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.