Does Skills Based Hiring Mean Unbiased Job Posts?

I get a lot of questions about how to remove bias from job postings, but I'm not sure anyone is expecting my answer.? I mean, let's call it like it is. It's a soap box and y'all know I could stand up here all damn day.?

That's because bias in job postings isn't just linguistic. The AI sales people want to tell you it's about gendered language, but it's so much more complicated than that. If you start to dig into the history, it's pretty clear that a lot of the tactics used today were responses to shifts in society, not some brilliant new way to evaluate talent.? Uh, and that response to the shifts in society? Usually not a positive one. It's more of a defensive response. A certain group of people, usually those in power, said "we want to stay in power."

Laundry lists of mandatory requirements are used as barriers to entry for the people they want to keep out. "Well, you have 8 years of experience instead of 10," said the person who's scared of young tech savvy folks forcing them out of a job.? Especially ridiculous when you realize just how random the numbers are in the first place.?

Requirements should allow a recruiter and job seeker to clearly assess the experiences and skills needed for the job. Ideally, we only assess the skills actually needed for the job. That's where skills based hiring comes in. It's supposed to help us create a skills inventory, assess talent, streamline - ta da, inclusive hiring. Balance. Systems. Yay.?

News flash. We don't need a whole new approach to hiring to make job posts more inclusive and honestly, I question if skills based hiring is even accomplishing the task.

Instead, we need to find more universal language to explain work. We need to write like we would explain something to a teenager. Something anyone can understand. Most of all, to remove bias, we have stop exaggerating requirements we don't need to do the job.?

You can delete those years of experience, too, after reading this month's posts. If you care about inclusive hiring, you'll love that post and the others I wrote over the last few weeks.?

• How-To Have Hard Conversations About Bias: Inclusive Hiring Training
• Little Things Add Up
• A Better Way To Determine Job Titles
• Finding Balance: What Dogs Taught Me About Slowing Down
• Ageist Requirements: Why Years Of Experience Don’t Work
• Stop Asking “How Are You?” Try This Instead.
• Coming Out At Work: How Companies Drive LGBT+ Inclusion?
• Dewey’s First Flight