Can Skills Pay The Bills?
Lance Haun
Focused on people, work, and tech and consulting with top work tech companies at the intersection of it all at TSC
Are We Jumping Too Fast Into a Skills-Based Future?
I’ve been hearing more and more about skills-based hiring. In theory, it sounds great. But can we be honest for a sec? It’s way more complicated than it sounds.??
Why??
For one, we’re still not good at identifying which skills truly matter for the job. Job descriptions often read like a catch-all list of buzzwords, but as CIO points out , if companies can’t strategically pinpoint the exact skills they need, this whole skills-first trend becomes an exercise in futility.?
In short, we’re focusing on the "what" without fully understanding the "why."
Then, there’s the elephant in the room: how are we evaluating these skills? Sure, hiring based on degrees and years of experience is simplistic and flawed, but at least it’s measurable. How do you determine if someone is truly skilled at "leadership" or "problem-solving"? As a recent article from Inc. showed, the process of evaluating skills is still murky at best . The reality is, most organizations don’t have reliable ways to measure skill depth. It’s mostly just surface-level checks that don’t get the full picture.
It’s also crucial to note that many companies are jumping on the bandwagon without thinking about how they’ll maintain consistency. Skills aren’t as static as credentials; they evolve, and without proper validation, you risk hiring people who appear skilled but don’t actually meet your needs. There’s still a lack of robust frameworks to ensure that skills-based hiring produces the right outcomes. I’m not a lawyer but that sounds like a problem!?
On top of all that, we’re falling into the trap of believing that simply switching to skills-based hiring will fix our talent problems. But if we don’t have the skills or the evaluation right, what’s the point? We’re basically swapping one stupidly-flawed hiring method for another. If you don’t have a system in place that can measure and validate skills in a meaningful way, the whole initiative feels more like a rebrand than a revolution.?
Until we refine how we identify and assess these skills, the promise of skills-based hiring is overstated. Right now, it feels like we’re rushing into something because it sounds modern and inclusive (and yeah, kinda cool). But if we don’t figure out the basics (what skills we need and how to measure them) then we’re just swapping old hiring headaches for new ones.
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Nobody Quits Because Microsoft Teams Sucks (But Maybe They Should)
I’m a big believer that technology plays a critical role in shaping the employee experience, but let’s not overstate its importance.
HR Morning recently had an article that highlighted that workflow inefficiencies — like outdated or clunky software — can frustrate employees and hurt productivity. It might even make them less engaged (okay) and cause them to look for a job elsewhere(?).
But let's face it: no one’s quitting just because Microsoft Teams is annoying. And hey, maybe they should. As only an occasional Teams user on a Mac, it drives me nuts. Bigger issues like leadership, lack of growth, and company culture are still the primary drivers of disengagement and even the rise of tech probably won’t change that.
The key is putting tech improvements in their proper place. Fix the annoying software, sure, but don’t expect it to be a silver bullet for retention — or, more realistically, to have any impact on turnover at all.?
That's it for this week!?
Lance
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Co-Founder & CEO at TaTiO, PhD / TA Tech Top 100 Most Influential Thought Leaders.
1 个月I absolutely agree, Lance Haun. This is where most companies trying to Implement skills-based hiring need help. I see it: We must move forward and implement a new perspective on skill assessments, not another text-based questionnaire. We need to focus more on actual skills—performance-based tools.
Chief Executive Officer
2 个月Commenting for better reach ??
Transforming work and changing lives through the power of relationship | Keynote Speaker | Author | Management Innovator| Employee Engagement Expert | Future of Work Sense-Maker
2 个月This whole "skills-based" thing is a little perplexing to me. What were we hiring for before we decided skills were important? This is a real question.
Well said Lance Haun. There are recent studies (see HBR's) referencing the very low % of operatioanlization of this. The market has been created in large part by "HR tech influencers" and vendors spending marketing dollars creating a new category.
Fractional Tech Marketing and Communications Strategy
2 个月A+ edition Lance