Looking for Talent? Use Skills-Based Hiring Practices

This article was written in collaboration with Katherine Keegan, Director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment's Office of the Future of Work

Before the pandemic, employers were struggling to find the skilled talent they needed. In March, 2020, just before the country entered a state of lockdown, a survey from the US Chamber of Commerce found that 74% of hiring managers agreed that there is a skills gap in the current labor market; 48% said that candidates lacked the skills needed to fill open jobs.

The pandemic has only exacerbated the severe skills gap; more than half of respondents to a recent McKinsey survey said that closing skill gaps in their companies’ workforces has become a higher priority since the pandemic began. Workers are also concerned about the skills gap. According to a survey from Prudential, “workers see their job opportunities fading if they don’t reskill — and 43% say their long-term financial security will be in jeopardy if they do not retrain or learn new skills.”

If left unaddressed, the skills gap will only continue to worsen, to everyone’s detriment. Workers will be denied the opportunity to put their skills to good use, employers’ efforts to grow will be hindered, and our economy as a whole will suffer. For instance, a 2018 study from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute predicted that the skills gap in manufacturing alone could put $454 billion of GDP at risk in 2028.?

There is no silver bullet to solving the skills gap; rather, employers need an arsenal of tools and a robust strategy to ensure their future success. Skills-based hiring practices are one such tool.?

Whereas traditional hiring practices emphasize the importance of years of experience, education, and background, skills-based hiring practices focus on the skills candidates have and the skills they can learn. Employers benefit from this approach in many ways: they fill open positions faster and improve employee retention and engagement.?

Nicole Smith, a research professor and chief economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, notes that soft “essential” skills like creativity and problem solving will survive the automated future: “The jobs that endure will be the types of jobs that are not easily automated, where human reasoning is required.” Workers aren’t the only ones who benefit from developing their skills: employers who prioritize skills-based talent management practices will also be more future-ready than those who don’t.

Another benefit is increased diversity in the workplace. When companies hire based on candidates’ skills, they avoid the “culture fit” question, which all too often translates into “like me. Employers can also learn more about the skills candidates have acquired from diverse experiences instead of just focusing on those acquired in formal educational settings. Given the fact that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not, skills-based hiring practices have the potential to expand access to employment to those who have historically been shut out of the labor market.?

How to Write a Skills-Based Job Description

Hiring managers can start implementing skills-based hiring practices by making all their job descriptions skills-based. Skillful, an initiative of the Markle Foundation, is a proponent of skills-based talent management practices and provides the following guidance:

Remove unnecessary degree requirements: Many job postings require a bachelor’s degree for jobs that don’t require college-level skills. For instance, a report from Harvard Business School and others found that in 2015, 67% of production supervisor job postings asked for a college degree, while only 16% of employed production supervisors had one. When you require a degree or credential, you are excluding the two-thirds of Americans who don’t have a degree and limiting your candidate pool. Assess whether the job truly requires a degree before posting the position.

Clearly define the skills needed for the position: In order to determine what exact skills an employee needs to succeed in your position, take the time to be crystal clear about what competencies a candidate needs. Skills generally fall under two categories: occupational competencies (the technical skills a person needs to succeed, or “hard skills”) and foundational competencies (professional knowledge and skills that are transferable from one job to another across industries, or “soft skills” or essential skills). For more guidance on how to write a skills-based job description, click here.

Determine which skills are truly required and which ones are preferred: Words matter. If your job posting only lists “required” skills, you’ll discourage qualified people from applying, even if they have most of the skills for which you’re looking. Instead, take some time to understand which skills a new employee will absolutely need to succeed in a job and what skills they can learn. This exercise will not only help you find the best fit for your position, it will also help you future-proof your workforce: a report from the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, titled “Leading Practices in Modernizing Candidate Recruitment, Hiring, and Training” asserts that “by standardizing and validating skills for a specific organization or industry, it will be easier to evaluate the contingent workforce, identify skill and talent gaps, and develop training programs geared toward specific demands.”

Take advantage of existing tools: Both Skillful and Emsi offer no-cost tools that can help you write your skills-based job descriptions. Take a look at Skillful’s Job Posting Generator and Emsi’s Job Posting Optimizer for guidance and inspiration.

How to Conduct Skills-Based Interviews

Your skills-based job posting won’t do you much good if you don’t change your interviewing process accordingly. Skills-based interviews reduce unconscious bias by answering one question: does the candidate have the skills needed to succeed in the position? By being laser-focused on the skills an applicant has and those they can learn, you decrease unconscious bias and can hire the best person for the job. Here are some tips to conduct a skills-based interview:

Create an evaluation rubric ahead of time: Using your skills-based job description, create an evaluation document that assigns a numerical value to each skill you’re looking for. In addition to keeping the interview focused on skills, it will also help interviewers compare candidates fairly, as all of the applicants will be evaluated based on the same criteria.?

Make sure your questions are focused on skills: Replace general questions such as “Why are you a good fit for this position?” with more precise questions that reveal whether or not a candidate has a skill or not. If you’re looking for someone adept at problem solving, a skills-based question like “When have you experienced an unexpected problem during a project, and what did you do to address it?” will provide you with much more useful information.

Take into account nontraditional work experience: Work is not the only place people can gain new skills. For instance, workers can learn in-demand skills like conflict resolution, strategic thinking, and communication by volunteering. Make sure to explore what the candidate gleaned from their experiences outside of the workplace.

Incorporate a skills assessment: Another great way to interview candidates is to ask them to complete a skills assessment. This practice is common in tech, where candidates must demonstrate their coding skills through a test or project. Skills assessments can take many forms: if you’re hiring a communications manager, for instance, you can ask them to draft an op-ed for an executive. If you’re hiring a project manager, you can provide them with a hypothetical or past project and ask that they create a strategic execution plan. These assessments will speak for themselves, making your decision that much easier.

About Misti Ruthven

Misti is known for scaling transformational education initiatives across Colorado through coherence and collaboration. She has been named an innovator and thought leader. As director of Colorado’s education and training innovation efforts and former executive director of Student Pathways, Misti Ruthven has led initiatives connecting business, higher education and K-12 and considered a national subject matter expert on work and experiential learning, college and career readiness, paying for college and successfully transitioning underserved students to college. Her work has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and White House.?

About Katherine Keegan

Katherine began her career working with immigrants and refugees in Boston. This work led her to pursue a master’s of science in social work at The University of Texas at Austin where she focused her studies on community and administrative leadership. Since then, Katherine has managed AmeriCorps, workforce readiness, and career coaching development programs in Texas, Indiana, and Colorado. In August 2019, she joined the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment as the Director of the Office of the Future of Work leading the state’s efforts to raise awareness about the impact of the future of work and create a future-ready workforce.

About the Office of Education and Training Innovation

The Office of Education and Training Innovation was initiated in collaboration with the Governor’s Office, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment?(CDLE), the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE), the Colorado Department of?Education (CDE), the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC), and business partners to support expansion of work-based learning through apprenticeship and modernization of our education and training systems for all Coloradans to earn a living wage in our state.