Partnering for progress: How recruiters can drive the skills-first transformation

By Adam Hawkins, Head of Sales – Search & Staffing, Talent Solutions, EMEA & LATAM, LinkedIn?

The launch of LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting report at the end of March sparked a flurry of conversation around the necessity of a transition to skills-first hiring and the role of the recruitment industry in facilitating that shift.??

In my discussions with our customers across?across the globe?since the report landed, it has been?a positive sign to see employers leaning into a skills-first approach and embracing the potential it has to expand talent pools, democratise job access and build more resilient teams. This is my third blog on the topic, with the first focusing on the thinking behind skills as the new currency for the labour market, and the second on the role for recruiters in supporting companies evolving to this new methodology.?

In this blog, I explore more of what we are seeing in the market today in relation to putting these ideas into action, including practical tips for recruiters looking to support clients moving away from assessing candidates on past schools, degrees, companies and job titles to instead focus on skills, abilities and ambitions.?

Partnering for progress?

While leadership buy-in and operational collaboration has to underpin any organisation’s shift to skills-first hiring, recruitment agencies have a crucial role to play in driving that process through their collaboration with end clients. By market insights, viable solutions and foresight, agencies can advocate for a skills-first culture and meaningfully demonstrate the benefits of a skills-first approach to employers.?

The Future of Recruiting report clearly outlines that this approach will be the way of the future – more than three-quarters of recruitment professionals predict skills-first hiring will be a priority for their company in the next 18 months. But there is a long way to go and not all staffing organisations are there yet, with only 76% saying they can accurately assess candidates’ skills today.?

My previous blog talked about how organisations need to start their transition to skills-first hiring with an internalskills audit that allows them to fully understand their current skillsets and identify future skill requirements. Companies that I have spoken to that are “pacesetting in this approach are assessing - what are the capabilities you need for future products / solutions (top 5) and then rank current capacity against those skills. The list becomes the basis of the skills strategy. Such an analysis provides a foundation for developing a skills-first strategy – as we have seen in recent years around the DEI agenda, without a full view on a company's diversity data it is impossible to drive change without first fully understanding the status quo and setting out an end goal.?

For their part, recruitment agencies need to start by clearly articulating the outcomes they aim to achieve through skills-first hiring, as this clarity can underpin the shift in the relationship between agencies and employers. Adopting a skills-first mindset requires a wholly different approach to traditional hiring methods, so recruiters should seek opportunities to pilot and test skills-first hiring initiatives with organisations that are receptive and beginning their own journey. By starting in a targeted way?and demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach, agencies can build buy-in and support for broader skills-first transformation efforts. If businesses are to scale such an approach and generate wider buy-in it is essential to project quick wins to all stakeholders.?

The new gold standard?

Skills-first hiring is becoming the gold standard for recruitment, with staffing organisations recognising the opportunity to shine a light on previously overlooked talent, including candidates without college degrees, and promote diversity and inclusion. Recruitment professionals are going to need much greater visibility into the skills that candidates have and those they don’t, which means forward-thinking firms should now organise databases that both list the skills of pipelined candidates and the skills needed for specific posts.??

With the ability to map employees’ skills and understand skills gaps now essential for recruiters to make informed talent decisions, there is also more room for staffing firms to play a role in driving conversations on upskilling and internal mobility, which lead to higher employee retention and cost savings.??

Recruiters are crucial in guiding employers towards this shift within their organisations. Instead of fixating on job specifications, employers need to prioritise skill specifications. This means supporting organisations as they move away from the traditional approach of filling jobs and shifting towards identifying candidates based on their skills that directly align with their business needs today and in the future. It will become increasingly important for recruiters to help employers understand why they should aim to source candidates that match specific projects within their business, fostering a more targeted and effective hiring process.?

Equally, recruitment agencies can both provide learning opportunities themselves and match candidates to organisations that prioritise upskilling and skill development, given they are increasingly important drivers for employees. More than 80% of in-house recruitment professionals say they need to work more closely with their learning and development colleagues in future, and staffing agencies can use their vantage point to smooth that process and engage more on the upskilling agenda.?

Unlocking success in an evolving job market?

The transition to skills-first hiring is not going to happen overnight and needs to be embraced as an evolution rather than a revolution. There is no doubt implementation will encounter resistance to change and other challenges, but employers need to foster a culture that values skills and provides training and development opportunities, working with external partners to overcome barriers.?

Recruiters will also be able to leverage technology, such as AI and automation, to streamline processes and assess candidate skills more effectively. Data-driven insights will allow recruiters to identify skills gaps and make informed decisions about talent acquisition and development. They can also support the mindset shift towards lifelong learning and upskilling, using data to help create compelling arguments for the move to a culture that encourages continuous learning, internal mobility and opportunities to acquire new skills.?

Putting ideas into action?

For organisations to start delivering on a skills-first mindset, they first need to shift the focus from traditional qualifications to the specific skills and potential of individuals. That shift will typically start with conducting a comprehensive skills audit, to build an understanding of the current skillsets and identify future requirements and provide a foundation for a new skills-first strategy.?

Leadership buy-in and sponsorship is then crucial to successful implementation, as leaders will need to champion the importance of skills over traditional metrics to drive the necessary cultural and operational changes. With leaders onboarded, organisations can start to collaborate with external partners including recruitment agencies, tech providers and educational institutions, to leverage their expertise and resources to implement skills-first initiatives. Such collaboration and co-creation will likely be the key to unlocking innovative solutions.?

Next up, organisations will be able to empower their employees to take ownership iof their own skills development and career progression. This might involve implementing mechanisms for employees to regularly assess and update their skill profiles, as well as offering support and resources for skills acquisition and upskilling.??

None of this can be done without the simultaneous ongoing upgrading and evolution of tech platforms, processes and systems to provide support to the skills-first approach. This will involve new tools, AI-powered solutions and data analytics.??

Crucially, recruitment professionals working in-house have the potential to make a huge impact for their employers. As Brett Baumoel , VP of Global TA, Engineering, at Microsoft, is quoted as saying in the Future of Recruiting report: “You used to be able to say, ‘These hires helped our company.’ Now you can say, ‘I changed the make-up of our company, I changed where we work, I changed what we look for and I changed how we hire.’?

Practical steps for recruitment agencies?

For external advisers, there are so many ways in which recruitment agencies can support clients with this skills-first evolution. First up, they can play a vital role in guiding businesses to organise work around skills and fostering a shift towards skills-based hiring practices. At the same time, leveraging LinkedIn resources, they can access extensive skills data and insights that will enable them to match candidates based on skills signals and connect their clients with qualified talent.?

By promoting skills-first hiring, recruitment agencies can help clients moving toward more equitable and diverse teams, focusing purely on candidates’ ability to do the job. Given nearly three in four recruiting pros say the macroeconomic environment is not lowering the priority of DEI hiring , offering clients practicable solutions to enhancing diversity remains key.?

Agencies can play a pivotal role in helping businesses organise their work around skills, using the outcomes to improve candidate matching and pairing them with opportunities for continuous learning to help individuals thrive in the evolving talent landscape.??

The skills companies need are changing fast – LinkedIn’s CEO Ryan Roslansky likes to say ‘even if you aren’t changing your job, your job is most likely changing on you’ – and recruitment pros are no exception. Adaptability, problem-solving, and business acumen rank among the top five soft skills staffing professionals will need in the future. As recruitment pros become more strategic partners, they’ll need to adjust on-the-fly and find staffing solutions that ladder up to overarching business goals.???

Now is the moment?

As a professional who has a deep sense of pride in the role the recruitment market, I find it genuinely exciting to see the potential for the skills-first model to shape our industry’s future and position our professionals to make a powerful impact through fresh perspectives and innovation. I believe this is a transformational moment where the role of a recruiter will fundamentally shift in the foundations of the role from screen out to select in.? What are your teams already doing to drive forward skills-first hiring? I’d love to hear about where you are seeing successes and how you are overcoming hurdles.?