Are you thinking of implementing or piloting a skill-based hiring approach in your organization?
Here are some recommended steps we advise:
1. Assess your current labor shortage for your entry-level and mid-level positions.
What positions of yours have you had open for more than 45 days?
What positions of yours have the highest attrition rate?
Consider taking one or two of those positions with the longest time to fill or the highest attrition rate to pilot a different approach focused primarily on evaluating skills and competencies rather than traditional qualifications like degrees, pedigrees, and certifications.
Perform an analysis on diversity data for your piloted position
2. Analyze the job descriptions and postings for your piloted positions.
Do your entry-level positions require 4-year degrees?
A recent LinkedIn study found that employees without a traditional 4-year degree in an entry-level position stayed in their role for 34% longer than their counterparts that had a 4-year degree.
Do your job postings have "Requirements" listed?
Consider removing requirements and replacing them with responsibilities or competencies. A recent LinkedIn study showed that job postings with "requirements" yielded 14% job applications compared to postings that focused on responsibilities and competencies.
Focus your job descriptions and postings on the results you want the incumbent to achieve to be successful and the necessary skill-set to obtain those results
3. Keep track of how your analytics shift for the piloted position(s).
Compare your HR metrics on the piloted position(s) from before to after six months of hiring.
How have your people analytics shifted?
Do you have employees with a more diverse background in the position?
Has the overall attrition rate lowered?
Have employee engagement scores risen?
Are employees more satisfied with the job?
How have promotions internally changed from the group?
Suppose you begin with an entry-level position and obtain the results you want to see within your organization. We challenge you to pilot this in a more middle-level position to boost even further your DE&I efforts.
Download our example skills checklist below to support translating your current job descriptions to skill-based job descriptions.