Skills-based recruiting: Objectives and goals

- If I'm going in for surgery, I expect that the surgeon who plans to perform that surgery will have many years of schooling which includes a bachelor's degree, advanced medical degrees, and many years of experience performing said surgery under their belt. However, for a job that doesn't require as high a degree of skill, it would be quite ridiculous to expect the same education requirement. Yet for many years, the unnecessary degree requirements of employers have created barriers to qualified candidates and have prevented millions of participants in the labor force from entering specific types of jobs and advancing in their current careers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which collects and reports on data for the United States workforce, 60% of workers do not hold a four year degree and requiring a four year degree automatically screens out 65% of African Americans, 33% of Asian Americans and 75% of workers of Latin or Hispanic heritage. Pair that with the graph that shows we have a talent shortage. And you can see why a skills-based recruiting strategy is critical. Consider that according to McKinsey's women in the workplace report. 70% of companies say that diversity is very or extremely critical, and 80% of chief HR officers say their organization's investment in DEIB is increasing. However, fewer than 25% of companies translate their belief into anything tangible. No formal evaluations, performance reviews or even recognition. And though investment in DEI is increasing, only 30% of employees feel their organization is genuinely committed to improving racial justice or equality in their workplace. If we rely on what companies say, we're going to continue this cycle of talk, the disconnect between what they say and do is contributing to the talent shortage. Employers can't say they value diversity while simultaneously putting up barriers to that diversity. And as a recruiter, you have probably been complicit in this illusion. Until now. When social constructs based in racism, sexism and a few other isms and phobias lead us to believe that women aren't suitable for technical jobs or people of color aren't the right fit for management roles or that a disabled person is unqualified. We find ourselves in a situation where our recruiting and hiring process confirms our beliefs. This confirmation bias is one reason why attempts to remove the barriers becomes synonymous with the idea of lowering qualifications, diversity recruiting or what we now know as just good recruiting is the active commitment to increase diversity within an organization. It's a concerted effort to overcome the traditional lens we are conditioned to look through and move toward engaging candidates who are not usually on our radar for any number of reasons. Without a commitment to diversity, you can't reap the benefits of a skills-based recruiting strategy because you won't be able to distinguish between the perception of lowered qualifications and the assessment of true talent. Remember what I said about recruiting on the moon? According to LinkedIn's latest future of recruiting report talent pipelines can increase 10 times when using a skills first approach. But unless you understand Martians have value too, your strategy will be pointless.