Recruiters should consider looking for the "surprise fit" instead of the "perfect fit" when sourcing candidates for clients, a behaviour-based role modelling expert has urged.

Speaking to the Recruitment Society last week, Jo Keller of Belbin Associates, said the perfect candidate was not always the best solution when finding a long-term fit to fill vacancies.

"Sometimes a candidate is too perfect and there is no room for development. Perhaps a client needs a surprise fit.

"Maybe look at someone who you might consider barely eligible — a person who can make the job their own with potential to stretch the company and stay there," added Keller.

Keller offered a cautionary tale of a blue-chip company that spent a year recruiting a staff member who fitted a particular role so well at the outset that a competitor poached him for an identical role just six months later.

Belbin's team-behaviour profiling work is based on founder Meredith Belbin's research with Henley Management College.

"Often there are too many of certain behaviour roles within a team which causes conflict," said Keller. "With the model you can quickly identify roles within a team and assess what is missing. It's not the only tool for recruiters but creates a common language with clients."

Helen Reynolds, deputy chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, has used such tools for team building and recruitment.

She said: "Clients want their recruitment partners to be an extension of their HR departments and understand their corporate needs and have intense knowledge of the companies they are recruiting for."

Such a tool, Reynolds added, could be "invaluable". "It is a great opportunity to demonstrate to a client that you really do understand their business."