Skill vs. resume: The benefits of skill-based hiring and 3 tips from Stepstone.
The scarcity of talent in Belgium makes it appealing for many employers to look beyond the traditional hiring process. For many employers such as Google, Revolut and IBM, skill-based hiring is the right alternative for finding talent.
Skill-based recruiting is more effective in times of scarcity in a number of ways and offers several benefits by looking at more than just candidates’ education and work experience.
Why it’s so important
One of the primary reasons that focusing on skills is so impactful during recruiting, is that it increases the number of high-quality job candidates. In fact, Harvard Business Review indicates that the skills needed for many jobs can often be applied very easily to other jobs as well.
Applying skill-based hiring changes the type of respondents who respond to a job offer. It changes from one, or a small number of overqualified and expensive potential employees to a broader talent pool of qualified candidates.
Focusing on skills also increases employee retention. The broader talent pool allows you to make a decision that is the best fit for your company. It also increases the likelihood of the job being a better fit for the chosen candidate. In addition, this form of recruiting encourages a corporate culture of continuous development so that employees are more likely to grow loyal towards the company.
Some tips
Moving from traditional recruiting to focusing on abilities can be a step that brings confusion for many. Therefore, we have 3 tips to apply this form of recruiting more effectively.
Tip 1:
Rethink your job description. Replace terms like “desired level of education” and “years of work experience” with the skills needed for the job. That way, you’ll appeal to potential candidates from outside your industry.
Tip 2:
Shift your focus from education and work experience to the tasks someone must perform on the job. For example, someone with hospitality experience may possess the same skills needed for customer service work. This way, a potential candidate needs little additional training.
Tip 3:
Conduct a job analysis. This way, before you even go into the job interview, you can determine what set of tasks are associated with the position. Having a clear picture of the range of tasks that belong to a job helps you determine the necessary competencies.
Increase your chances
Switching to skill-based hiring not only increases your chances of finding a suitable employee, it also increases your level of employee retention. Applying these 3 tips will ensure that the recruitment process improves at your company as well.
