You’re eager to take your business to the next level this year, but your organization can’t grow if you don’t have the right people in place. And that’s where skills based hiring comes in.
Research shows that 87% of companies view improving retention as a major priority for their organizations. And that’s partly because turnover may cost companies between 16% and 213% of their lost workers’ salaries.
Fortunately, with skills based hiring, you can increase your business’s chances of success in both the short term and the long term. Here’s a rundown on what skills based hiring is, how it works, and why it matters in 2021 and beyond.
Let’s jump in!
Table of Contents
What Is Skills Based Hiring?
Skills based hiring is a hiring approach that emphasizes what job applicants can do versus the education they possess.
For instance, you won’t ask applicants how much experience they have and what degrees they have earned. Instead, you seek applicants who have specific capabilities. As an example, you might want someone who is an expert in using Microsoft Excel.
How Skills Based Hiring Works
How exactly do you verify if certain job applicants have the skills you’re looking for in your organization? First, you can administer assessment tests to applicants before they ever get to the job interview. In this way, you won’t waste time interviewing people who lack the skills your company needs to stay competitive.
These assessments can easily test for hard skills or technology skills. For instance, they can involve producing a writing sample or a coding sample for a writing-based or developer job, respectively. Or, they may involve creating a mobile application or a dummy website for a web development job.
Outside of assessments, you can also seek applicants who have earned certain industry certifications that showcase specific skills.
Another way to put skills based hiring into practice? Allow your team’s top performers to conduct comprehensive interviews with job applicants.
These team leaders know what types of skills their future team members must bring to the table. Thus, they can be excellent resources for assessing the usefulness of a job candidate’s skills.
Why Skills Based Hiring Matters
Skills based hiring matters because it can level the job applicant playing field and increase your candidate pool. After all, just because an applicant doesn’t have a degree or years of experience doesn’t mean they won’t be the perfect fit for your team.
In this way, skills based hiring can also make your talent pool more diverse. Plus, you can and reduce the amount of time it takes to interview and hire people. And your hiring process will be more effective long term.
Take Advantage of Skills Based Hiring Today
In today’s quickly evolving business world, it’s paramount that you stay ahead of the competition. And it’s for this reason that skills based hiring is rapidly picking up steam among today’s organizations.
When you hire individuals based on their skills competencies, you can more easily adapt to today’s morphing labor market. Plus, many job seekers can actually create pathways to careers that they previously did not think were possible.
Consider the above-listed benefits of skills based hiring as you seek to create and maintain your own organizational dream team in the months and years ahead.
Also, if you enjoyed reading this article, check out the rest of our website for more great content.