Why Organizations are Hiring for Skills Over Experience | Hunt Scanlon

While legacy hiring practices have focused heavily on a candidate meeting specific role requirements (e.g., education, job history, etc.), others are endorsing a skills-based approach. Such an approach assesses candidates’ holistic skill set (including adjacent skills across industries) rather than on job profiles with criteria such as industry experience or specific educational credentials. This summary provides ideas on how skills-based hiring can a) significantly expand the talent pool for open roles by reducing or eliminating unnecessary requirements, such as matches to job profiles, past job titles, and education, b) reduce unconscious bias in the recruiting process by leading to a more objective assessment of the relevant skills, and c) facilitate internal mobility and fill talent needs faster. While firms may be shifting more towards skills-based hiring, migrating to this model requires a time investment on the front-end (e.g., deconstructing work into skills) and a mindset and behavior shift within the organization. Some of these challenges can be mitigated with AI-based technologies. Other ideas are discussed.