Companies are currently facing a tight job market with skills shortages and trends such as the Great Resignation. Businesses must adapt to their current situation, but some are falling at some crucial hurdles.
‘Hiring for skills’ is one of the latest trends to emerge in the talent acquisition space and for many businesses, it will be the key to unlocking this difficult job market. According to LinkedIn, hirers using skills to find talent are 60% more likely to find a successful hire than those who are not relying on skills. So why is it that 80% of business leaders still say that their applicant tracking systems filter out half of the highly skilled candidates due to system parameters such as missing credentials?
In this competitive market, businesses should be doing everything they can to bring on board the best and most suitable talent and hiring for skills could be the missing piece to your business’ hiring strategy.
How can Hiring for Skills help?
This recruitment strategy focuses on the candidate’s transferable, real-world skills and competencies instead of their educational achievements or previous job titles. It isn’t always obvious what a candidate’s skill portfolio looks like just from their CV. When you build hiring for skills into your selection process, these valuable skills won’t be overlooked.
As of October 2022, in the UK job vacancies are still 450,000 above pre-pandemic levels, meaning getting hiring right the first time is more important than ever. Businesses are seeking ways to widen their talent pools and diversify their organisation. Concentrating on a candidates’ skills ensures all applicants are adequately considered for the role. By doing this, you’re able to ensure you’re building the strongest teams possible – you’ll have talent that grows and shifts with your business.
Having that flexible talent is crucial to ensuring employee satisfaction levels remain high. Employees that feel that their individual skills are appreciated and sought out will feel more valued. Businesses often struggle to find flexible talent due to rigid and overly defined job descriptions. When creating job descriptions, you must consider which talents are vital and which are simply preferred. Defining the talents your business needs will ensure skills-based assessments are incorporated into your candidate selection process.
Lastly, this recruitment concept increases hiring velocity. Relying on your ATS to filter through your candidates to connect the right keywords or find the perfect experience match can be expensive and lengthy. More to the point, it does not guarantee that you will hire a candidate that has the skills that are needed for the position.
Where do I start?
Implementing tangible, practical methods to measure and assess these skills are steppingstones. Identifying the skills required for each role is a non-negotiable first step. Collaborating and aligning with your hiring team to determine the skills needed ensures everyone is on the same page. Rather than simply assuming what skills a candidate has gained from educational qualifications or jobs, consider if there are any specific soft skills or software competencies that are needed. Defining which skills and competencies are deemed necessary for each job role will determine how these are measured in assessments.
Once these are established, it’s time to write the job description. Strip back your current job description templates and re-examine each part of your existing verbiage. Breaking down any bias barriers opens your hiring process to suitable talent, ensuring no one is unconsciously excluded. Are you using language that would imply a bias favouring specific educational backgrounds? Is there unnecessary jargon?
Assessments are evidently the best way to then measure these sought-out, desirable skills. Such skills tests help businesses to focus on three core areas: interest, ability and internal need. These areas help hiring managers understand the crucial skills that can’t be found on a resume, such as emotional intelligence. This will enable HR or recruiting departments to analyse how a candidate would interact with the overall needs of the company as well as their ability to perform tasks.
Managing the mindset
As well as these practical changes, adopting a hiring for skills mindset is key. Starting with expectations and management will help your team navigate this journey. There are a few things that are important to keep in mind when taking on this challenge:
- Nothing is ever final – this is a strategy that will develop, change and alter over time. Don’t stress if there are teething problems at the start. You can then iterate, test, and learn as you go as your organization’s approach to skills evolve.
- Align, align and align again – communication is essential when implementing a new process. Continual and open lines of communication between hiring teams and stakeholders will reduce barriers to change. Discussing what is and isn’t working will help in the move to searching for the skills you really need.
- Bring on board technology – technology is your friend and will help lift your load. Examine your current tech stack to identify any additional tools that would elevate hiring for skills.
Taking these steps will equip your company with talent that aligns with the skills your company requires, both now and in the future.
Creating a collaborative company approach
Hiring for skills can’t be done by one person or even one team. This needs to be a company-wide mindset change to how businesses approach prospective jobs and candidates. Collaboration and commitment to help one another will set this journey off on the right foot. Planning and a structured collaboration framework between hiring teams and your business hiring manager will lead to an impactful and effective structural change.
In the current talent market, hiring for skills will transform your business, both now and in the future. Looking at the whole person and looking deeper into the unique skill set they can bring will increase the diversity of employees you have. Different perspectives and life experiences ultimately lead to a more productive and successful workforce.
