WorkLore

Evidence for the value of Skills-based hiring

Have you ever had the experience as a job seeker of looking at a posting that you think you would be interested in and being intimidated by the qualifications required? Or looked at a posting as an experienced employee thinking you have all the requirements only to realize it is for an entry level position and salary?

If you have, then you have experienced “qualification inflation” also known as degree inflation. When job markets tighten and applicant numbers for each position soar, companies inflate the requirements for jobs to reduce the applicant pool (because they can). The problem is, those inflations never go back down.

There are two major problems with qualification inflation:
1. When qualifications include degree inflation, it increases the cost of job market entry by requiring the investment in additional education, that may not be necessary for the job.
2. It is inequitable. Gaining the inflated qualifications required for a job is harder to marginalized groups, including women, persons of colour, persons with disabilities, and people in lower socio-economic strata.

That’s where skills-based hiring can make a difference. Skills-based hiring does not depend on degrees or past job titles. Skills-based hiring focuses on whether or not a candidate has the skills, NOT where those skills came from. This opens the door for candidates who gained skills in other countries, or through volunteer work, or through stretch assignments or pitching in on projects that aren’t captured by their job title.

It also ensure that the people who completed those degrees, or held those positions with those titles actually have the skills that we might be assuming they have. That’s all for the better all the way round.