Skills-First Hiring: How to Turn Good Intentions into Real Action

When it comes to finding the right person for a job, employers are increasingly realising that jobseeker’s actual skills are more important than their pedigrees. The majority of employers (51%) now say on-the-job experience is a key indicator of a quality hire, according to a 2024 Indeed-commissioned survey conducted in partnership with YouGov in the U.S. and five global markets. Only about a quarter say the same about jobseeker’s education.

Skills-first hiring — focusing on the skills a candidate brings to the table versus requirements unrelated to the position, such as degrees or years of experience — is clearly gaining traction. Indeed Hiring Lab data, for example, shows a clear U.S. trend of employers dropping their requirements for bachelor’s degrees — a positive shift benefiting many jobs, though more progress is needed. 

Many employers still are not adjusting their hiring strategies accordingly: Just 13% say they have edited job listings to remove degree and tenure requirements, according to the 2024 international YouGov survey. A similarly small fraction (17%) say they have actually trained staff in how to screen and hire for skills. 

Action on skills-first hiring is likely lagging due to gaps in knowledge about how it works. “Many employers are unfamiliar with skills-first hiring,” says LaFawn Davis, Indeed’s Chief People and Sustainability Officer, “so they need to understand what the strategy entails and why it’s good not only for people but for business.”

There’s plenty of evidence to guide them. Research has found that employers who implement skills-first hiring strategies (also known as skills-based hiring) find qualified job candidates twice as easily. Those candidates have also proved to be more productive and motivated hires, says Debbie Dyson, CEO of the nonprofit OneTen, which aims to unlock career opportunities for talent without four-year degrees. “If someone has been trying to get a job and has been eliminated because they don’t have a degree, when an employer finally sees them and is willing to take a chance on them, their loyalty to that company increases significantly,” she says.

Here’s how to move from interest to action and begin reaping the benefits of a skills-first workforce.

Start small when hiring for skills

At the most basic level, skills-first hiring means prioritising the skills required on Day 1, versus degree and tenure requirements. But there’s more to it than that. Writing skills-first job listings require using inclusive language and having a clear understanding of the role’s specific responsibilities and needed capabilities.

Say you are hiring a recruiter. A traditional listing might ask for a “team player” with a bachelor’s degree and five years of experience “working in a recruiting environment.” That vague language says little about the skills applicants should actually bring to the table. 

By contrast, a skills-first approach to the same listing might ask whether jobseekers have conducted interviews and partnered with hiring managers to decide on new hires. 

The biggest misconception about skills-first hiring is that it is an all-or-nothing endeavour, says Jacob Vigil, Director of the Rework America Alliance, a national initiative focused on helping people move from low-wage roles into quality jobs through skills-first hiring and training. (The alliance is part of Jobs for the Future, which offers resources and tools to advance skills-first hiring and talent management practices.) 

Vigil says his top tip for employers is to start with just one or two challenging job listings. That might include open roles that are not getting any applications, or roles that are being flooded with applications, but none that are a good fit. “Start with the low-hanging fruit,” Vigil says.

Get Help with Skills-First Hiring

Not every job is ripe for a skills-first approach. “If someone is getting surgery, they might expect their surgeon to have a degree,” says Ebony D. Thomas, Managing Partner at Grads of Life. “But does every software engineer need the same level of credentialing? Maybe not.” Indeed launched a partnership with Grads of Life last year to train 10 companies in skills-first strategies, from how to “re-credential” job descriptions to how to conduct a skills-first interview. “The intent is to facilitate peer-to-peer conversations among employers, so they can learn from each other’s skills-first journeys and exchange best practices,” Thomas says. 

Bring the Whole Hiring Team on Board

In many ways, rewriting a job description is the easy part. Actually using skills-first methods to make the hire is tougher. 

Research by Harvard Business School and The Burning Glass Institute shows that, despite a fourfold increase in the number of job listings without degree requirements between 2014 and 2023, the average number of people without degrees actually getting hired for those roles only increased by 3.5%. 

“For decades, going to college was believed to be the thing to do,” Thomas says. “Over time, that belief created an inaccurate stigma around non-degreed talent not being capable.” For example, OneTen’s survey of hiring managers shows that some employers worry jobseekers without degrees lack interpersonal and communication skills, which are harder to assess in interviews.

To win over hiring teams, employers should help set them up for success. That means upskilling them and equipping them with the right tools, such as interview rubrics that ensure every applicant is getting the same questions and is judged on what they can do, rather than where they are coming from. Hiring managers may also need help looking beyond their usual college recruiting channels — think regional workforce centres or skills-based training programs that develop the exact abilities they’re hiring for.

But while these tactical measures are important, the only way hiring managers are going to use them is if they understand why skills-first hiring matters. “Employers have to highlight the benefits of skills-first hiring,” Vigil says. Among them: It may help reduce mishires, increase retention and be cost-effective.

One way to win over hiring managers is to track the impact of skills-first hiring over time. Grads of Life, for one, developed an Impact Measurement Framework, an inclusive set of metrics that employers can use to monitor and track the growth and outcomes of their skills-first practices.

For instance, how many people are getting hired without a completed degree? And how do their performance reviews compare to those of their colleagues with degrees? When hiring managers do embrace skills-first hiring, celebrate their wins. “Recognition goes a long way,” Thomas says, “and kudos are free.” 

Finally, skills-first hiring should not be viewed as an altruistic initiative. At a time when the labour market is tight, Dyson says, it is a business imperative. “There is not enough talent based on the criteria that are in place today,” she says. “When employers rewrite their job descriptions, the talent pool expands.” 

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