Hiring for Skill

There is a growing need for companies to re-evaluate their hiring practices when it comes to ensuring candidates have the proper skills and aptitude for the role. Traditionally, hiring processes primarily included reviewing the candidate’s resume, previous experience and education, to help determine if that candidate is a good fit.

Today, more employers are looking to evaluate candidates based on their skills, abilities, and potential in addition to their work history. This new perspective will help businesses with:

• Filling talent shortages 
• Overcoming skills gaps 
• Increasing diversity 

• Strengthening internal mobility 
• Gaining a more immediate economic impact  

There are challenges to incorporating a new skills-based approach into the hiring practice. Companies will need to shift their practices from where candidates are being “screened out” to candidates being “screened in.” This will require many businesses to: ​

• Develop a skills strategy 

• What skills does the business need? 
• What skills does the current workforce possess or can develop? 
• What skills does the business need to hire for? 
• How will the business upskill its current workforce? 

• Initiate long-term plans regarding talent acquisition 

• How will the business evaluate these skills? 
• Determine the training needed for recruiters and hiring managers. 

• Determine what systems are needed to support the change 

This type of change will affect processes from how the role is defined and the job posting is written to how candidates are evaluated, and employees are managed and developed. The change management aspect may be the most challenging piece to implementing a new skills-based approach to hiring and managing employees.  

If your business is looking to move towards this type of practice, eliminating college degree requirements and finding new and creative sourcing strategies are a couple of ways to help start that process.  
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Adapted from SHRM