How to Implement Skills-Based Hiring in Your Recruitment Strategies

The skills-based hiring approach continues to be the main hiring approach in 2024. This means businesses worldwide are moving away from merit requirements and focusing on soft skills and growth potential.

This article will walk you through steps to integrate skills-based practices into your daily hiring strategies to future-proof your recruitment acts. 

Benefits of Skills-Based Hiring in the Workplace

Skills-Based Hiring Opens Doors for Diverse Candidates

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) has gained momentum and become a key part of business operations worldwide. A diverse and inclusive workforce means having employees from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.

A study by McKinsey & Company found that companies with diverse teams are 33% more likely to outperform their competitors. Having team members from diverse backgrounds helps your company broaden and understand the insights and needs of potential customer profiles. Moreover, having employees from diverse backgrounds also brings fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to your organization.

Skills-Based Hiring Approach Minimizes the Global Skill Gaps

The growing skills gap across the globe is obvious. According to the McKinsey & Company report, 87% of organizations stated they currently have a skills gap or anticipate experiencing it within the next two to five years.

Current employers cannot afford to overlook potential talents. By adopting a skills-based hiring approach, your companies can move away from traditional requirements such as four-year degrees and certain years of experience - which can be barriers to prevent potential applicants from applying for the job.

Instead, the skills-based hiring approach highlights skills, competencies, and growth potential. This helps companies broaden the potential applicant pool, find the right talent to cope with the current emerging skills gap and prepare for the future of work. 

Best Practices for Skills-Based Approach

Crafting Inclusive Job Description

A job description is the first impression for candidates to learn about the company. Staying away from strict requirements such as specific years of experience and limited industries can help your company attract more diverse applicants. 

Most businesses (even in the same industry) operate in different ways. Having those strict benchmarks might not serve the role. Instead, do a job analysis, gather information from current employees, learn from other job descriptions, and conduct industry research to list potential hires' key competencies.

Developing Skill-Specific Assessments

The next step is to use competency assessments and simulations to evaluate candidates.

Competency-based assessments measure a candidate's skills and abilities in specific areas. These include cognitive abilities, technical skills, and soft skills.

Simulations are exercises that simulate real-life work scenarios. These can include role-playing exercises, case studies, and group activities. Simulations allow employers like you to understand how candidates adapt and handle challenges in practical settings.

Leveraging Early Career Talent

By 2025, Gen Z is projected to make up around 27% of the global workforce.

Nurturing Gen Z talent and providing mentorship is a strategic approach to building and sustaining your talent pipeline. This practice involves not just hiring but also building internal talent markets through hosting internships/apprenticeships. 

These integrated learning programs remove barriers such as experiences and degrees and provide early-career talent opportunities to learn on the job. By engaging in hands-on experiences, these emerging talents can learn to cope with the ambiguity of the professional world and foster competencies to succeed in the future of work.

Tracking and Analyzing Hiring Data

To measure the success of your skills-based hiring strategy, it's crucial to track and analyze hiring data. This includes data on the demographics of your candidate pool, the diversity of your hires, and the success of those hires in their roles.

By tracking this data, you can identify gaps or areas for improvement in your hiring process and adjust accordingly.

Tapping into Global Talent for DEI Hiring Practices

At Virtual Internships, we support companies like yours in building teams that embrace diversity and inclusion. We believe that given the right opportunities, every candidate has equal potential to thrive professionally.

We have partnered with global universities, educational institutions, agencies, and governments to provide accessible global internships for diverse candidates such as first-gen students, refugees, and women returners.

Virtual Internships is an all-in-one platform to tap into the global talent pool with:

• Easy Integration: Access our library of over 250 internship project templates ready for customization to meet your goals and requirements. Once approved, you can select interns from our talent pool or receive your customized interns' profiles directly to your inbox.
• Cost-Effective Solution: Our educational partners cover all the costs so there's no additional cost required. By becoming our host company, you can tap into a quality talent pool while saving an average of $6,000 per hire.
• Rapid Acquisition: Within 72 hours of approval, you can start finding and connecting with our global talent from over 100 universities across more than 50 countries. Plus, our global team provides around-the-clock assistance to address any challenges or concerns that may arise.

Join our 15,000+ community, become a host company, and embrace the future of hiring strategies for your organization's success.