The Talent Paradigm Shift: Embracing Skills-First Hiring for Competitive Advantage.

Why Traditional Criteria Are No Longer Enough and How Skills-First Approach Drives Success.

As most of you who follow me and read my content will know, I have been in recruitment since the Jurassic period! The recruitment industry back then was pretty much a ticket to print money. It was all about getting skilled candidates to fit the role and quickly move onto the next one.

?Whilst we developed good relationships with our clients it was all still fairly transactional. ?Yes, we worked hard and diligently, but no matter how you dress it up we were all order takers, client had a need, we would fill it, end of.

?Every job description would inevitably include the following client must haves:

·?????Absolute minimum of 5 years’ experience in X

·?????Must have a 2:1 or higher degree from a Red Brick University

(Sometimes years’ of experience would be flexible if a candidate got a First from Cambridge, Oxford, Durham etc)

·?????Must have worked previously as X job title

·?????Must have worked in large, corporate environments

·?????Strong cultural fit

No matter what type of role you searched for, you would normally have to fulfil the above criteria.

So, what is apparent from this approach is that, more often than not, we (agency recruiters) were chasing the same candidate demographic of mostly white, educated, men, as this was the single group that usually ticked all of those boxes.

But what is so deafening now, is the missed opportunity of all the other candidates on the marketplace, who fell through the cracks because they did not satisfy all the tick boxes above.

In the latest brilliant report by Sue Duke , VP of Global Public Policy LinkedIn “Reimagining the Labor Market and Breaking Down Barriers”, data shows that:

“88% of hirers agree that they are filtering out highly skilled candidates just because they lack traditional credentials such as past job title or degree.”

So, whilst our approach and thinking around hiring might be evolving, it is still not at a point of where it needs to be.

As Sue Duke puts it:

“We must minimize these missed opportunities and focus on building a deep understanding of people’s potential. We collectively need to shift our mindset so that we hire based on skills and learning, and not solely on degree or job title.”

And this is where the new paradigm shift comes in.

We need to change the narrative around hiring, from simply fulfilling job vacancies to Sustainable and Inclusive Hiring being a core component of every company’s ESG strategy.

We are faced with far greater challenges and also opportunities than we were 25 years ago.

The biggest one of all which affects every business in the UK and Western economies is our shrinking and ageing population. The birth rate is decreasing, our national population is ageing and according to this article in the??Financial Times, by 2025 more people will die than are born annually, reversing a long-term historic trend.

Bottom line, we shouldn’t be worrying about Robots/AI taking our jobs, we need to be far more concerned that there aren’t enough humans to take them in the first place!

So, creating a Sustainable Recruitment Ecosystem should be an essential part of any business’ growth strategy, and a pivotal shift in that is adopting a skills-first approach to hiring, which Sue Duke explains prepares the workforce for the jobs of the future and more efficiently and equitably matches talent to opportunity.

So, what is Skills-First hiring? According to Reimaging the Labor Market report:

“Skills-first hiring is the recruitment strategy of focusing on a candidate's skills and abilities to do the job whether or not they meet typical education, prior employer, or job title requirements. Prioritizing skills does not ignore traditional hiring and development systems that already work but enhances them to better match talent with opportunity”.

The advantages and benefits of a skills-first approach can be transformational:

1)???Expands the talent pool to more diverse candidates.

2)???Democratises access to jobs.

3)???Makes the labour market more resilient.

As recruiters, we need to reimagine the workforce population. We need to see potential and opportunity in every demographic group and by adopting a skills-first and evidence-based approach, we are able to match talent to opportunity, when previously those groups would have fallen through the cracks.

• Consider disabled candidates, 1 in 5 people of working age are disabled, that is 20% of the UK workforce.

• Consider the over 55’s an increasing demographic group with rich unique experience to offer. (By 2030 47% of over 50’s will be in employment Report)

• Consider women who make up 51% of the population and who are paid less than their male counterparts by 80% of the employers in the UK. (2021 Census Data)

• Consider candidates from low socio-economic backgrounds who simply have never had the opportunity or access to higher education etc.

“Pupils eligible for free school meals are much less likely than other pupils to go into higher education, particularly to more prestigious universities. They are also almost twice as likely to drop out before the start of their second year in higher education.” (Report)

• Consider candidates from non-white backgrounds. 18% of the UK population belong to a black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic group (2021 Census Data)

Suddenly the potential of these candidate groups bursts open when we consider a skills-first approach as we create a level playing field which includes everyone and excludes no one. By offering everyone access to the same opportunities based on skills and abilities not because of who they are, where they went to school or who they know, we can start to break down barriers and open up talent pools.

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This is an essential part of creating sustainable recruitment eco systems and an essential part of an organisation’s ESG Strategy. Companies will not achieve sustainable growth without it.

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Coming from the Jurassic period, I know what extinction looks like and I know the greatest survival skills are the ability to adapt and change.

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“It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but?the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” Charles Darwin

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It is essential that Employers now look to the future of recruitment and focus on Sustainable, Inclusive Hiring Best Practice and how this is interwoven into their ESG Strategy, to future proof their growth and resilience in the face of the global human talent shortage and economic challenges.

I would encourage you to read Sue Duke’s report in detail here: Report

If you want to break down barriers, democratise your recruitment process, widen your candidate reach to the whole market place and create a sustainable recruitment eco-system, then you can get in contact here.

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