Adopt These 6 Skills-Based Hiring Practices for Your Company

Education has long been regarded as a surrogate for aptitude. Of course, degrees and certifications are necessary for many occupations. However, measurable competencies are the actual value for middle-skill employment. In addition, 74% of recruiting experts polled believed that there has been a shortage of competent people in recent years.

A more balanced way of examination is skills-based hiring. Obviously, some jobs need a degree or professional certifications/licenses (think doctor, lawyer, nurse). Even in those cases, assessment for abilities gives further information into prospective job matches.

6 Skills-Based Hiring Best Practices

Switching recruitment and hiring practices to enable skills-based hiring may appear intimidating. Fortunately, several tools are accessible to recruiting managers and company executives to assist them. Here are six recommended practices for skills-based recruiting that will put you on the right track to more efficient and productive hiring.

1. Articulate the Skills Required for Each Open Job

Performing a gap analysis on every open job and prioritizing the skills required to fulfill it can set the stage for more successful skills-based hiring. During the gap analysis process, you can identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required to be successful in a role and those that are missing. Using such an analysis, you can get more specific about the kind of talent you're looking for and which skills candidates should be able to demonstrate to impress and be successful in the role.

2. Build a Skills Assessment Tool

The attributes that are most critical to success in a given role can be identified. Then, you can build a customized, interactive skills assessment based on the individual job requirements. The assessment will guide candidates through a series of questions, tasks, and projects that allow you to see their strengths and weaknesses. This template can be used as an in-person requirement during the interview process, or it can be completed online by candidates who have made it to the final round of consideration.

3. Map a Candidate's Skills to the Job's Essential Abilities

The skills assessment can be directly linked to the job description and your employment brand to map a candidate's skills to the job's essential abilities. The interactive skills assessment can be customized with your company's specific values and strategic direction, ensuring congruency for each candidate.

4. Make the Assessment a Requirement for Consideration

Using the assessment as a hiring requirement will ensure that you're able to assess the skills of candidates who are already motivated and invested in the process. It also ensures that candidates in the pipeline are those who have the aptitude and interest to succeed on the job.

5. Conduct Multiple Rounds of Assessment

It's important to conduct multiple assessment rounds to help ensure that all candidates understand the job requirements. For example, you can include an assessment of soft skills and culture fit as part of the hiring process. This can give you an idea of how a candidate will perform in your company's environment and ensure that you're hiring the best fit for your business.

6. Uncover the Skills That May Not Be on the Resume

Have you ever hired a candidate who was an outstanding fit for the job until they got to the office and were unable to navigate your company's specific technology, or who were uncomfortable with your company's culture, or who were unable to elevate a project to completion on the first try?

Unfortunately, this happens far too often in the hiring process. An ideal candidate may have all the right KSAs on their resume but lack the soft skills, work ethic, and perseverance to succeed in a job. The skills assessment can uncover those soft skills and traits that are crucial to success but may not be on your resume.

Conclusion

Skills-based hiring is the best way to ensure that your company is hiring the best available talent. And with the cost of turnover rising, companies must adapt to the needs of their hiring managers and focus on hiring the right talent for the jobs.

Are you ready to implement these skills-based hiring best practices?

Kandio offers professionally-made assessment tests to help companies hire the perfect talents. Check out the tests we have available for you to use today to find the right talents to work with!