More employers are leaving behind college degree requirements and embracing a skills-based hiring approach that emphasizes strong work backgrounds, certifications, assessments, and endorsements. And soft skills are becoming a key focus of hiring managers, even over hard skills.
Large companies, including Boeing, Walmart, and IBM, have signed on to varying skills-based employment projects, such as Rework America Alliance, the Business Roundtable’s Multiple Pathways program, and the campaign to Tear the Paper Ceiling, pledging to implement skills-based practices, according to McKinsey & Co.
“So far, they’ve removed degree requirements from certain job postings and have worked with other organizations to help workers progress from lower- to higher-wage jobs,” McKinsey said in a November report.
Skills-based hiring helps companies find and attract a broader pool of candidates who are better suited to fill positions the long term, and it opens up opportunities to non-traditional candidates, including women and minorities, according to McKinsey.
At Google, a four-year degree is not required for almost any role at the company — and a computer science degree isn’t required for most software engineering or product manager positions. “Our focus is on demonstrated skills and experience, and this can come through degrees or it can come through relevant experience,” said Tom Dewaele, Google’s vice president of people experience.
Similarly, Bank of America has refocused its hiring to use a skills-based approach. “We recognize that prospective talent think they need a degree to work for us, but that is not the case,” said Christie Gragnani-Woods, a Bank of America global talent acquisition executive. “We are dedicated to recruiting from a diverse talent pool to provide an equal opportunity for all to find careers in financial services, including those that don’t require a degree.”
Hard skills, such as cybersecurity and…
2023-02-24 19:00:02
Post from www.computerworld.com
In today’s rapidly changing job market, traditional markers of job readiness—such as a college degree—are no longer as meaningful as developing a range of specialized skills. Across the economy, employers are rapidly moving away from using college degrees as a basis for hiring, instead favoring candidates who possess highly-specific skills.
Skills-based hiring is often focused on specific, technical abilities that are hard to obtain without extensive (and specialized) experience – such as coding, data analysis, accounting, or engineering. Rather than relying on the bland metrics of previous educational attainment, employers can use skills-based hiring to give them a better sense of their candidates’ actual competencies. Furthermore, this type of hiring allows them to be cognizant to potential biases in hiring decisions and make informed decisions that are more meritocratic in nature.
Relying solely upon college degrees to assess job performance omits important information about a candidate’s actual qualifications. Since many college programs lack a practical element, they are unable to properly prepare students with the specific skill sets they will need to succeed in their given field. This has resulted in a growing disconnect between employers’ desires for specialized skills and a college ecosystem that cannot fully provide them. Skills-based hiring provides a much better understanding of an individual’s talents, eliminating the need for employers to distinguish candidates based upon the schools they attended.
The proliferation of online resources such as online courses, gaming, and massive open online courses (MOOCs) has made it increasingly attainable for more and more people to demonstrate their skill sets in a very streamlined fashion. By obtaining certifications and demonstrating experience, individuals can stand out from other candidates who lack such credentials.
Skills-based hiring has been a welcomed change by many workers, especially those that may have lacked the means to obtain a traditional degree. By focusing the hiring decision on competencies and qualifications, organizations are able to foster a much more equitable and competitive hiring process. This shift has already had a tremendous impact in the workforce, creating many more opportunities for individuals who would have previously been overlooked.
Going forward, it is likely that skills-based hiring will become an even more major factor in the job market. As traditional hiring metrics continue to become increasingly irrelevant, employers must recognize the need to change their hiring processes in order to remain competitive. By taking advantage of better assessment methods and more data-driven approaches, skills-based hiring can ensure a more inclusive and diverse workforce.