Leave Autopilot Exclusion Behind, or Get Left Behind With It.

More than 70 million people in the US are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs). STARs have the skills for higher-wage work – skills gained in community college, workforce training, partial college completion, bootcamps, certificate programs, in military service, and on-the-job learning. And yet, they are more likely to be held back, and to be denied access to higher-paid career opportunities matched to their skills – for no good reason. In fact, for one bad reason: because employers routinely “screen out” skilled workers without bachelor’s degrees.

It hurts STARs who can’t translate their learning into earning. It hurts employers looking for skilled workers, but overlooking millions that fit the bill. It hurts our economy, creating supply shortages and inflation when companies can’t meet all their customers’ demand as a result.

In Opportunity@Work’s Opportunity Wrap, Cheston McGuire shares highlights the proliferation of skills-based hiring practices, how tapping the STARs talent pool can help tech companies avoid their past shortcomings in building a diverse workforce, and compares the findings of a major study of Black and Hispanic frontline workers to our Black and Hispanic STARs mobility data.???

• Terry Collins reports in USA TODAY that across the U.S., more employers are adopting skills-based hiring, rather than pedigree-based hiring. According to HireVue’s recent survey, around 45% of employers are adopting a “skills-first” approach, and 33% are turning to skills-based assessments over resumes to find talent. https://bit.ly/3zD3W0j?
• Opportunity@Work’s Julie Elberfeld shares in Fast Company that, as employers stare down the possibility of a recession, “More companies have an opportunity to strengthen their pipelines of technology talent while also creating pathways to economic mobility for the workers who need them most.” https://bit.ly/3zXSbTE
• Covering new McKinsey & Company findings – part of a collaboration with Cara Plus – Ray Smith writes in The Wall Street Journal that, “For all of the effort companies have poured into hiring and advancing people of color, those moves rarely benefit the biggest—and most diverse— pool of workers they employ.” Smith cites Opportunity@Work’s data showing Black and Hispanic STARs “were half as likely to end up in a high-wage job” as white STARs. https://on.wsj.com/3Jm5cti

In the face of all the evidence, companies must leave behind “exclusionary autopilot mode” in their hiring processes, or be left behind themselves. Employers can win in the race for talent and beat ‘the labor shortage’ when they adopt more modern, skills-based, and inclusive hiring norms and then follow through with investments in worker skills and equitable advancement practices.

All the best,

Byron

P.S. Opportunity@Work will be at SXSW this year. Will you?

Please take look at our proposed #SXSW and #SXSWEDU panels on the #PanelPicker – all focused on rewiring the U.S. labor market so that all individuals Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) can work, learn, and earn to their full potential. If you think a panel is worth an audience, please click the links below, sign in and vote for our events. And join us if they’re chosen!

• The Invisible Barrier to Economic Mobility
• What’s Next for Employer-Backed Credentials??
• An Inclusive Approach to Apprenticeships
• Skills-Based Hiring: How to Move Beyond the Buzz
• Driving DEI through Skills-Based Hiring?