New research reveals 3 factors that predict success in an AI-enabled workplace – plus 3 data-backed benefits of assessing for them
Arctic Shores
Helping disruptive TA leaders navigate a new era of recruitment with task-based assessments
If you’re only just rethinking what you select for, you’re already behind
In last week’s newsletter, we debated whether AI has made skills-based hiring redundant. The conclusion we came to was that it hasn’t but it does mean?how we think about skills-based hiring needs to change.?
We need to move away from an overreliance on current skills. And instead look to someone’s Skill-enablers?: the core strengths and abilities that enable anyone to learn, adapt and develop new skills.?
But the reality is that most companies have needed to rethink how they hire for quite some time.?
At the end of 2022, Arctic Shores’ Senior Psychometrician Luke Montouri and Senior Applied Psychologist Sanchia Dennis set out to review a huge data set with one key objective –– to understand which skills, competencies, and behaviours would be most predictive of candidate success in the “future of work”. And to establish how psychometric assessment measures would need to evolve to select for them.?
This was prompted by a growing body of research from folks like the World Economic Forum and McKinsey that –– even two years ago?––?was arguing that rapid skill decay and an ever-changing work environment (especially for knowledge workers) meant that what we selected for would need to be different than today.?
What they discovered was that in a world where the shelf life of many skills is just 2.5 years, what we measure in candidates has to involve assessing their ability to navigate change and re-skill.
And that was before using tools like ChatGPT in the recruitment process became mainstream for early careers talent and experienced professionals alike.?
If you’ve read our previous newsletters, you’ll probably be aware that this rich body of evidence lead Luke and Sanchia to discover that just three factors which predict success in the AI-enabled workplace ––?we call them Skill-enablers? and they are…?
?? Thinking style: a person’s innate ability to acquire knowledge, adapt, think strategically or critically, solve complex problems, be curious, and make decisions.
?? Self-management: how determined or persistent a person is, how well they might be able to navigate challenges, what environment they might thrive in, and what level of emotional control they might display in challenging circumstances.
?? Interaction with others: a person's ability to collaborate, grasp nuance, be perceptive to what’s going on around them, and adapt their behaviours as a result.
At a surface level, this grouping makes sense. But we’re observing three data-backed reasons that sifting for Skill-enablers? is fast becoming a non-negotiable for talent teams.
#1 Skill-enablers? help you figure out whether candidates will be able to go the distance
Skills shortages getting bigger not smaller? Candidates who are fine in the first year, but hiring managers report they’re not able to keep developing leaving you back at square one? Massive change projects going on to embrace new levels of automation and digitisation in light of AI??
Now more than ever, we need to be confident that the people we’re hiring have what it takes to adapt learn and develop new skills faster than ever before.?
That’s where Skill-enablers? come in. Think of it this way –– a person is a bit like a tree…
Leaves represent their skills or experience — these are perishable and need to be constantly refreshed. (Either because they haven’t been used in a role, or because tech like AI makes them redundant.)
?Roots, on the other hand, build a much richer picture of their ability to succeed. Roots are the core human traits —such as their ability to acquire new skills, solve novel problems, and adapt quickly to change.
We think of the roots as Skill-enablers? because they dictate how likely a person is to learn new skills and navigate change. And just like a tree can only grow tall and develop leaves if the roots are strong, a person can only continuously develop if they have the right Skill-enablers? for the job.
If you’re evaluating Skill-enablers? properly, you’ll know that whichever hire you make will be able to learn and relearn the skills they need. So, even if they don’t have the exact hard skills you need today, they’ll be able to pick them up quickly. And that’s a must-have in an era when skill decay is rapid.
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#2 Skill-enablers? build on existing models –– but look at personality and intelligence together vs separately?
There are a whole wealth of different frameworks out there for evaluating candidates based on their core strengths ––?and a lot of them are informed by the Big 5 Personality Framework. The Skill-enabler? model doesn’t disregard this framework –– it builds on it.?
Skill-enablers? include the facets of personality most predictive of a candidate’s potential to adapt, grow, and acquire new skills –– and measure them alongside a candidate’s intelligence (or aptitude).??
Except whereas most traditional psychometric assessment providers measure personality and intelligence (or aptitude) distinctly separately, Skill-enablers? consider the two together. This is designed to mirror more closely how people’s brains actually work.?
Think of it this way — none of us succeeds at learning a new skill just because we have a certain aptitude for it, but because we’ve persisted and stayed determined; we experimented and failed and tried again; we were able to understand the nuance in executing the skill; or we watched and learned from others, to see how they responded to our execution and iterated.?
Assessing a candidate based on their Skill-enablers? helps you capture a much more holistic picture of a person’s potential to succeed ––?and what environment they’re likely to thrive in.?
#3 Skill-enablers? can help you simplify skills-based hiring and get started quickly
If we shift away from evaluating candidates solely on their current skills, and also focus on how well they learn, adapt and develop new skills (focusing on current skills and Skill-enablers?), we can also simplify what it means to “do skills-based hiring".?
We no longer need to have a perfect skills taxonomy from day one to be able to embrace skills-based hiring and shift away from experience-based hiring. Because we know that whoever we’re hiring will be able to adapt to the skills we need in the future. ?
And we can also make it easier to win hiring managers over. Ask any hiring manager about the best hire they’ve ever made and rarely do they describe someone who had the perfect skillset from day one.?
Instead, they’ll describe the person who had the highest learning agility, who had a knack for solving complex problems and rallying people around the solution, or who was a great person to have around in the face of set backs.?
Talk to them about scrapping the CV and they might pull away. Talk to them about hiring people based on their ability to learn quickly and solve difficult problems, and you’re having a very different conversation.?
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If you’re interested in learning more about the how and the why behind this model, and want to arm yourself with everything you need to convince your stakeholders it’s time to make a change, you’ll want to check out this week’s episode of the TA Disruptors podcast…?where Robert is joined by Luke and Sanchia to dive deep into the science and research behind the model. You won’t want to miss it.
If you have any thoughts, reflections, or questions, drop a comment below. Or sign up here to get the newsletter every week.
Very interesting and I totally agree with the description, and the importance, of these "skill-enablers". I have long urged recruiters to look for capabilities like: TRAINABILITY, LEARNING AGILITY and ADAPTABILITY. Thanks for this insight.