Skills-based hiring—a recruitment approach in which candidates are evaluated based primarily on their skills instead of their education, work experience, or other formal qualifications—is one of the hottest trends in today’s tight labor market.
As hiring managers know all too well, job candidates can check all the usual boxes on an application, including having the right degrees for the job and years of related experience, and still fail to be a good, lasting hire. So why not focus instead on what really matters and recruit and hire people who have the skills necessary to do the job?
As businesses are discovering, there can be significant benefits to skills-based hiring, including broadening your talent pool to include more diverse, non-traditional candidates. A larger talent pool does not equate to a less-talented pool, either. When you hire candidates who have the real-world skills necessary to perform their roles, it sets your teams up for success and can lead to higher levels of performance and higher rates of employee retention.
Where to begin with skills-based hiring
To transition to skills-based hiring, the first step is to identify the skills candidates must possess. Most jobs require a mix of hard, or technical, skills and soft skills, such as empathy, creativity, and resilience. You’ll want to identify which skills are mandatory from the moment of hire and which can be provided through training.
Once you know which skills to prioritize in your hiring process, you’ll need to rethink and potentially rewrite your job descriptions, removing unnecessary requirements like years of related job experience and inserting the skills that matter. By letting candidates know your specific expectations, you can reduce the number of applications from those who aren’t qualified while at the same time attracting more people who have the precise capabilities you’re looking for.
Once you’ve updated your job descriptions, you’ll want to look into the rest of your hiring process to make sure you’re interviewing and selecting candidates based on the skills-focused approach. For example, interview questions should be focused on evaluating the candidates’ hard and soft skills and not on their education, work history, or similar credentials.
Get the support you need with skills-based hiring
Insero Talent Solutions has the experience, speed, and quality you need from a recruitment agency. Our recruiting services team can help you find and hire better candidates in less time, while also providing a great candidate experience that improves your brand and employee retention.
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About the Author: Benjamin Vassallo
