Write a CV, go to a job interview, get a job.

Everyone knows the process.

But,

What if there was a better way?

Skills-based hiring could be the answer.

Throw away the CV.

Instead focus on asking job applicable questions and setting small tests that prove a person’s capability.

Doing this, especially if the tests are anonymous of any personal details, creates a fairer more inclusive way of recruiting.

It increases diversity, is a more accurate predictor of job success, and overall is a smooth and simple process.

The Problem With Traditional Recruitment

Traditional hiring, starts with a job description and a CV.

If the CV matches job description, then you go to an interview.

Best person at interview gets the job.

The issue here is that these steps are vague and arbitrary, more often based on gut feeling and first impressions than accuracy or applicable skills.

It’s open to bias as well as bad hires.

So how do you prevent issues like bias? How can you create a better recruitment process?

Let’s take the experience and education sections on a CV as an example of the issue.

Experience, for most, has now become solely about how many years a person has worked and education is all about the “highest” qualification.

The more years you have, the better, and the highest qualification wins.

This can lead to bias, discrimination, and also – as studies have shown – are not the best indicators of actual “on the job” ability or application.

In fact, with the increasing need for continuous learning and professional development, the simple “X years of experience” is no longer the gold standard.

Using such a simple point of focus can mean you miss out, especially on those who are looking to change careers and have the appropriate skills but not the “years of experience”.

This narrows your talent pool considerably, and in such a competitive candidate market with skills gaps, not considering a wider range of applicants is hampering your recruitment.

There’s also bias with trusting big names in education (such as preferring Oxbridge graduates over another university) that leads to a lack of diversity in businesses.

Historically, candidates from prestigious universities, or with higher degree classifications, were given preferential treatment.

While this has lessened it does still happen.

Research has shown this to be ineffective for several reasons:

• a huge number of high-potential candidates attend less selective universities, or don’t attend university at all.
• targeting prestigious universities disproportionately impacts minority candidates, who are often underrepresented.
• with the cost of university skyrocketing, many high-potential candidates are actively avoiding university, and would rather join the workforce immediately.

Furthermore, how often have you heard how often theory rarely is the same as practice.

A New Solution

Skills-based hiring helps address this and provides a level playing field.

First of all, by removing the CV, there is an inherent drop in potential bias.

And, if you conduct the process anonymously (i.e. personal details removed until the final choice is made) then you are truly focused on the candidate’s skills and capabilities.

Afterall, what matters are the candidate’s skills in the present moment, not necessarily their past experiences.

LinkedIn data shows that 40% of companies rely on skills to source and identify job candidates, but the question is, how are they measuring and testing this?

Therefore, instead of a CV a company would set a series of tasks or questions that would prove the abilities, skills, needed in the day to day.

AI has changed CVs

The job market has changed, so recruitment has to change too.

The increased use of AI has caused businesses to distrust CVs, cover letters, and application form responses, and rightly so.

With AI tools almost anyone can draft the perfect CV or cover letter.

We can no longer assume that a high quality CV is associated with a great quality hire.

Instead, not all but certainly any CV provided could be AI generated.

What’s the answer to this – trust the content you receive? Or test the individual in a realistic manner?

Adopting the New Approach

Skills-based hiring requires a shift in thinking for each step of the hiring process.

And that can feel daunting — but it doesn’t have to be.

A quick summary of the process looks like this:

• Pick a regular opening (if you have high turnover) or hard-to-fill role.
• Identify the specific hard, soft, and cognitive skills for the role. This is the first (and most important) step.
• Then make changes to your interview or application questions or set tasks focusing on the core skills that will be needed day to day.
• Test the individual.
• Pick from the best results.

The emphasis here is on testing a candidate in a manner applicable to that exact role, and what they would be doing day to day.

In most recruitment adverts, what’s written are a general or broad set of skills needed for a role.

You want to be specific and detailed instead.

When you dig into the specific skills, aptitudes, and technical abilities you require for the role, you are better able to build a specific picture of who you are after.

The three skill types are:

Hard skills

Hard skills are typically technical skills. They’re focused around learned knowledge.

These could include things like software skills, computer programming, financial modelling, and project management techniques (as examples).

These are skills which usually require formal training or self study to acquire.

These skills are directly focused on the core technical functions of the role and are usually the ones easiest to test and measure.

Soft skills

Soft skills focus on a person’s personality and behaviour, usually with great emphasis on how they work with others.

These skills could include things like emotional intelligence, communication skills, resilience, and creativity.

They’re essential for quality performance at work but are usually harder to measure objectively.

Hiring people that have these skills contributes to employee retention, engagement, and job satisfaction.

Don’t overlook them and find ways to assess them objectively.

Cognitive skills

Cognitive skills are the ones that help people to learn, solve problems, and make decisions.

These are the core skills that improve the ability to learn and acquire other skills, while also helping people to think quickly, effectively, and with fewer errors.

Identifying these will help you find those who may not have the full technical ability yet but can quickly learn and rise to the challenge (with a little training).

Numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning are those usually tested, particularly by larger corporations.

Once you have identified the specific hard, soft, and cognitive skills required for the role, you can incorporate these tests into your recruitment.

Assess Carefully

The hard part is finding out how to assess these three types.

Some of the options below will give you an idea/starting point for you to use, but are by no means a comprehensive list.

Hard skills:

• Job knowledge tests
• Software skills tests
• Technical / situational interviews
• Case study exercises
• Presentation exercises
• Work sample tests

Soft skills:

• Personality questionnaires
• Motivations questionnaires
• Behavioural styles assessments
• Thinking styles assessments
• Emotional intelligence questionnaires

Cognitive skills:

• Numerical reasoning tests
• Verbal reasoning tests
• Logical / inductive reasoning tests
• Mechanical reasoning tests
• Spatial reasoning tests

Once you have identified the specific types of assessment that are required, you then may want or need to find a testing provider.

Finding a good provider will give you a complete and accurate picture of who is applying and what their skills are for that particular role.

It’s even better if you can anonymise personal details so that you base your decision free from bias.

Again, and heavy emphasis on this, just by removing personal details you can remove a lot of unconscious bias, especially if you focus purely on the results of the tests.

When skills like these are well matched with an individual’s role and they feel a sense of belonging at your company, then they’re less likely to leave.

You can boost retention further by connecting skills-based hiring with your learning and development program.

Identify skill gaps to create a personalised employee development plan to help your team members progress and your retention and productivity will soar.

Final thoughts

Once you have seen the scores, you are then able to make an informed decision based on the individuals who scored the best.

This anonymised, fact based approach can provide a clearer, non-biased way of approaching hiring, meaning greater diversity, greater application to roles, and better progression opportunities for all.

The system isn’t without flaws or criticism, however, it overcomes a lot of issues by letting you focus on more reliable predictors of applicable skills and success than mere gut feelings.