Skills mapping and new doors

There is a scene in an old movie Tequila Sunrise which over 30 years later still resonates. The Mel Gibson character (pre his fall from global grace via drunken, anti-semitic rantings) tells Michelle Pfieffer how hard it is to career pivot out of the illegal narcotics sector. Don't worry I'm going somewhere with this.

Central to his argument is that his stakeholders don't want him to. He has a whole multi-billion dollar eco-system relying on him to function: farmers, manufacturers, supply chain and of course the customers who want his product. No one wants him to change.

Skill matrix and competency based recruitment

This came to mind this week because I was looking at the idea of skills mapping and the talent pipeline. Not I hasten to reassure you because I am considering a career transition into a life of crime via recreational chemistry. I could become a British M.P. to do that.

It was more around those circular recruitment complaints frequently featured in the Follower Olympics. They talk about the relevance of university degrees and experience as benchmarks of success, the value (or lack thereof) of blind CVs, and poor quality job profiles. That's before we move onto all the -isms; ageism, sexism and racism and all the others that are embedded in our hiring and career systems.

These discussions appear with monotonous regularity, but with no conclusion and no changes being made. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the role of women and other under represented groups in the workplace where the needle barely moves.

Why?

It is because too many stakeholders don't want this to dysfunctional system to change?

Skills matrix

A smart move would be for organisations to adopt a skills matrix approach. A skills matrix visually displays the competency level in specific pre identified skills of every function and role in an organisation. It supports businesses to optimise the use of their current talent and create succession plans. They can plan internal promotions and future hiring programmes in line with projected skill needs. With a skills matrix leaders can identify skill deficits to plan ahead and bring in contract specialists to meet specific needs and to establish who internally would be open to training. For employees, an individual skills matrix allows them to create their personal development plan.

It all sounds very sensible, but conversations around skills mapping are quite often indulged in the same way as a parent might be confronted by a teenager wanting to paint their bedrooms black. It's a phase, they will eventually grow out of and common sense prevails.

Benefits of skills mapping

The benefits of skills mapping touch every part of the talent pipeline from recruitment, training, performance reviews and internal promotions. The process allows organisations to become more agile and flexible, but also to meet the demands of an ever changing workforce.

A skills matrix covers the following elements:

• Existing skills: establishing the current skills required for employees to do their jobs effectively and the competency levels within each skill.
• Future skills:?Projecting the skill requirements to meet longer term goals.
• Current experiences:?This relates to specific necessary experience which could include industry sector, geographical location etc.
• Future experiences:?Projecting the experience required to support new ways of working. This could include hybrid working, multi-generational, cross functional and multi-cultural teams.

?Skills mapping and recruitment

There are a number of advantages of skill based recruitment.

1. Greater objectivity

The approach focuses on hiring people for their skills, not their past career or employment history. This tackles any issues from having people involved in the process with a range of personalities, biases, behaviours and expectations. There will be stronger understanding of what is involved in each role, which will give greater clarity around the skills and competencies required. Hiring decisions should be based on fact, rather than perception.

2. High levels of retention

Greater accuracy in the hiring process and increased flexibility within the organisations will reduce turnover and increase employee engagement as employees are better matched to their roles. The possibility to transfer between functions based on skills, enable leaders to be more agile in dealing with unforeseen circumstances. We saw this in the pandemic when hospitality workers struggled to transition into customer service roles where you would have thought skill sets would have been aligned.

3. Better bias management

With a standardised framework for benchmarking skills and competences, candidates can meet your requirements regardless of age, gender, race, physical ability. It will support inclusive recruitment, avoid mini-me hiring based on confirmation and affinity bias so common today.

4. Greater diversity

This will result in a wider talent pool and more diverse workforce, rather than candidates selected for cultural fit and who they know within the organisation.

5. More cost effective

A flexible hiring approach giving a wider reach, should reduce time to hire.

How to hire for skill

Let’s take a look at how you can begin identifying the right competencies through your existing recruiting processes.

1. Blind hiring process

Setting up an intake process based on competency is contentious. This means that many fields are scrubbed (name, post code, previous companies, gender, age, university etc.) A university degree will no longer be seen as a benchmark for knowledge. This is already happening in some tech companies. Some jobs will definitely require higher levels of education (engineering, medicine come to mind) but this approach will for sure impact the value of soft degrees and some professional qualifications.

Certain highly regarded educational institutions would now be anonymised and alumnae could no longer benefit from the prestige associated with a "name" university or school. I don't imagine that would be well-received. Who would want to take M.I.T, INSEAD or Oxford off their CVs?

Previous employment in specific companies would not be visible. You recall the software engineer who failed to get job interviews on her own employment history and created a fake resume citing high profile companies. She then got recruiter calls.

Non-linear and lack of continuous employment will cease to be an issue. There would be no need to white wash names. Gender would be irrelevant. There is a line of thought that says why do this if candidates encounter bias once they get to an interviews? In the new order that should not happen.

2. Structured Interviews

Structured interviews guarantee that the hiring process is consistent for all candidates and reduces bias by asking all candidates the same questions with nudges to keep everyone on track. Behavioural interview questions assess abstract competence and soft skills around problem solving, critical thinking, leadership style and so on. Bias conscious interviewers will look beyond charisma and confidence to the granular details of specific skills and competency levels.

3. Pre-Employment Testing

Running pre-employment testing is strongly associated with skills and competence based hiring processes. They result in a standardized score, and rank candidates not only against each other but with their wider peer group. They can also evaluate a candidate’s cognitive abilities, personality characteristics, working preference and specific workplace skills (e.g. software.)

There is discussion around bias embedded into AI which has to be addressed and bias audits of software will definitely be a future feature.

4. Creating a data bank

The hiring process is now building up a useful bank of key information to allow leaders to monitor the performance results of each hire against the original skills requested. They can modify their requirements accordingly.

So, why does no one like competency models?

Doesn't this all sound great? You would think a skills matrix approach would be popular, but it's not as much as you would have thought. The general consensus is they take too much time and are too complex. The old known ways are faster and familiar. Why go through all the palaver of a creating a skills matrix for an open role, when a phone call to an alma mater takes 10 minutes?

Many organisations don't commit fully which results in resistance. I've worked with organisations which do have a skills matrix but hiring managers ignore it either partially or totally, especially at the interviewing stage. They default to clone hiring with cultural fit and short-term thinking wins.

The matrix can also be set up based on perception when the Dunning Kruger Effect can kick in with self-assessment, but women routinely under-estimating their own skills. The Idiosyncratic Rater Effect means we are also less effective at assessing others which tips us into "bad rater, bad data" territory.

Introducing a skills matrix is a strategic initiative with a range of benefits which touches every element of the talent pipeline. It takes time, commitment, energy and investment. To quote the adage

"Old ways won't open new doors."

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My goal is to increase the number of gender balanced, diverse and inclusive workplaces where everyone feels secure and reaches their potential.

? Please share this newsletter with your HR contacts.

? Want to strengthen and diversify the talent pipeline in in your organisation? Find out about the biases in your recruitment and promotion processes. Read more here.