By implementing skills-first practices, employers are 63% more likely to achieve results across key business and workforce outcomes.
By aligning candidates’ skills with job requirements, skills-first hiring can lead to better job satisfaction, improved performance and lower turnover -- boosting retention by up to 20%.
Rather than diminishing degrees, a skills-first approach values practical skills alongside formal education, recognizing the importance of lifelong learning and the varied paths individuals can take to acquire job-relevant skills.
Hiring for skills is 5x more predictive of future performance than hiring for education and 2.5x more predictive than hiring for work experience.
When recruiting based on skills, companies report filling vacancies much faster, accelerating time to hire by as much as 25%.
Skills-first talent management prioritizes workers’ skills rather than four-year college degrees when sourcing, hiring, retaining, and advancing talent.
At the recruiting and sourcing level, that looks like removing degree requirements from public job descriptions, adjusting language on the recruiting landing page, and advertising skills-based job descriptions. It also means expanding sourcing channels, identifying community-based organizations, community colleges, and training organizations in your target geographies that have preexisting programs that support your talent needs.
At the hiring level, taking a skills-first approach involves looking at your open roles and mapping out the skills needed the first day on the job. It also means building diverse interviewing teams, creating skills-based interview rubrics, and coaching interviewers on how to use them.
At the advancement and retention level, skills-first best practices include developing skills-based performance rubrics, identifying upskilling needs, developing or buying formal upskilling programs, and creating skills-based pathways for internal mobility.
These are just some of the ways to take a skills-first approach across the talent journey, and Grads of Life is poised to support companies in implementing the full spectrum of best practices.
Research has shown that skills-first practices result in 10x broader talent pools, on average. Taking a skills-first approach can also increase the proportion of women candidates in underrepresented fields by 8x. Additionally, skills-first employers are 107% more likely to place talent effectively, 98% more likely to retain high performers, and average an 18% reduction in turnover by recredentialing roles to focus on skills and open up internal career pathways.
Skills-first practices and DEI are interconnected. Skills-first talent practices prioritize the evaluation of candidates based on their skills, rather than exclusionary requirements like four-year degrees or other credentials. This opens up jobs for more diverse pools of talent, including candidates from marginalized communities that may have been historically excluded from these opportunities. When paired with the appropriate learning and training, skills-first practices can help companies mitigate unconscious bias in their hiring and promotion processes. Additionally, by clearly articulating the skills required of their roles, companies lay the groundwork to develop skills-based career pathways and increase access to economic opportunity and mobility. In this way, skills-first practices can work to advance existing DEI efforts and close the Opportunity Divide.
Grads of Life has a full suite of services and tools to help you get started on your journey, whether you are looking to advance skills-first practices or deepen your DEI maturity overall. You can also connect with a member of our advisory services team for a personalized consultation based on your goals.