2023 Workforce Trends: Skills-Based Hiring

As vague as the prediction of a recession remains through the end of Q1 2023, the job market remains strong. That’s why having a method for hiring the best talent for your business in any market is an asset. For example, a workforce trend gaining steam in 2023 is skills-based hiring. Here, recruiters judge candidates by their demonstrable skills instead of a pedigree, such as a degree or years of experience.

A Better Fit

It’s tempting to shrink the hiring process by using shorthand around candidate skills. Sorting a pile of resumes by keywords around degrees or years of experience can shorten recruiting work considerably. However, because no one looks at the discard pile, it isn’t easy to know if you missed your ideal candidate. Recent LinkedIn research states, “Pedigree requirements like degrees and years of experience aren’t reliable proxies for candidate quality, but skills and competencies are.” That research also shows that finding talent through skills gives employers a 60% likelihood of making a successful hire.

On-The-Job Learning

Is adding “years of experience” to your job description limiting your talent pool? A significant assumption around this requirement gives people with many years of experience a halo of successful practice and established productivity. The more compelling question is, can a candidate succeed if trained on the job? Alternatively, how many skills can translate into proximal roles? Often the answer is yes.

Unforeseen Barriers

With so many companies adopting diversity, a degree requirement deeply curtails candidates from historically marginalized groups. Excluding a group of people from the hiring process for lack of a degree stifles diversity and narrows the talent pool available for a critical position. More LinkedIn research states “…that adding skills qualification transparency encourages more women to apply to jobs they may not have otherwise applied due to a higher self-qualification bar.”

Keeping People Happy

A workforce of skilled people doing what they do best is an employer’s dream. Happy people increase profit margins by lowering overhead through efficiency, fewer HR issues, and lower turnaround. In addition, when people feel their job matches their talents, their desire to upskill increases, further improving the bottom line. 

Discovering your company’s path to skills-based hiring sooner than later keeps you ahead of the competition. Often, the reluctance to change has more to do with institutional momentum than a business’s day-to-day needs. Nevertheless, skills-based hiring is a significant trend to stay mindful of because if you’re waiting a year to see how it turns out, you will be a year behind the competition.

Trent Lyons is a Technical Recruitment Lead at Business Centric Technology. If you want to learn more about getting the best IT talent in the Dallas metroplex, contact Trent, who specializes in recruiting IT talent in Dallas, Ft. Worth, and North Texas. If you are looking for a rewarding career, contact us today.