Each day, more employers are abandoning college degree requirements and embracing a skills-based approach emphasizing work backgrounds, certifications, assessments, and endorsements. It helps employers find the most qualified candidates, boosts employee retention, allows access to a broad talent pool, and improves diversity. Here is why you should focus on skills over degrees.
Degrees Are Not Always the Best Indicator of the Best Candidates
Skill-Based Hiring Helps You Find the Most Qualified Candidates
Not finding the best candidate for the job is costly for an organization. A recent survey suggests that a bad hire costs around $15,000, and losing a great employee costs $30,000. Skill-based hiring can help. Skill-based hiring focuses on the skills required to fill a role successfully. Employers understand what an ideal candidate looks like, and job seekers get a realistic preview of the expectations for the position.
A college degree is, unfortunately, a poor indicator of job performance or a candidate’s suitability for a role. It is based exclusively on the assumption. Yes, a college experience will help mold soft skills, but more is needed to guarantee that a candidate has the technical skills and understanding to perform.
Hiring for Skills Improves Employee Retention
Employee retention is a priority for all organizations. According to data, employees without degrees are likelier to stay with an employer than those with four-year college degrees. There are reasons:
- A realistic job preview. A skills-based assessment replicates a real-life experience working in the role, which gives candidates a more accurate picture of the expectations. It typically results in higher job satisfaction.
- Skill investment. Employers increasingly offer ongoing job training and skill development, particularly in companies that hire based on skills. Employees commit to companies invested in their career development.
- Employees with degrees seek higher salaries. College graduates switch jobs more frequently in search of higher wages. Employers tend to pay higher salaries to those with college degrees.
Skill-Based Hiring Gives You Access to a Broad Talent Pool
A requirement for a degree makes it harder to fill roles. Employers with stringent hiring conditions are competitively disadvantaged to those who hire based on skill. When you have few candidates, hiring based on college education limits the talent pool.
Employers who reduce the application requirements, such as a college degree, remove the barriers that do not predict a candidate’s ability to perform the job. Skills-based hiring opens the organization to candidates who obtain their skills through nontraditional methods. As an employer, you get a much larger talent pool.
Workplace Diversity Improves With Skill-Based Hiring
Skill-based hiring does not allow a candidate’s financial background to dictate their ability to perform a role successfully. Although skill-based hiring does not necessarily favor underrepresented groups by default, it does remove the unconscious bias associated with pedigree. Skill-based hiring makes it more accessible for candidates from varying backgrounds and financial statuses.
Ready to Find Top Talent With Skills To Match?
If you are hiring in Nashville, Tennessee, and need to find good people with the right skills, let Wood Personnel Services help you. Wood Personnel Services is a local staffing expert for companies seeking experienced industrial, administrative, or professional talent.
