Skills-Based Hiring: A Reality Check

The best argument I have right now against its adoption

Woooaaahhh hold your horses! We need to slow down a moment with SBH.

Everyone and their dog is jumping on this over the last few months, Skills based hiring is a utopian vision where identifying and leveraging individual skills promises to unlock untapped talent reservoirs and democratise opportunities across the board.

Pretty much pushed by consulting firms, technology evangelists, and pioneering corporations who are singing the praises of this approach. But when we peel away the layers of enthusiasm and gloss, several pressing questions come to me, sparking a much-needed reality check on the skills-based hiring movement.

Let’s take a closer look at Skills Based Hiring…

The proposition is simple and appealing:

> Prioritise skills to ensure the right talent finds its way to the right roles, thereby generating, productivity and innovation.

However, this simplicity masks a complex reality. The definition of "skill" remains elusive, creating a foundational crack in the argument for a skills-based restructuring. Advocates argue that focusing on skills can uncover hidden talent and foster diversity. Yet, this perspective might be overlooking the comprehensive nature of individual assessment, where behaviours, competencies, operational context and experiences offer a more holistic view than skills alone.

Let’s apply some cost-benefit analysis

The promise of transforming into a skills-centric business carries with it the mystical allure of significant, albeit theoretical, benefits. These include unlocking hidden talent and enhancing diversity. But these benefits are often unfounded from concrete, measurable outcomes, while the costs, extensive organisational restructuring and cultural overhaul are very clear and present.

The idea that a skills inventory will allow for the seamless redeployment of talent as business needs evolve is particularly enticing as I keep saying, however, it suggests an oversimplified view of talent management, ignoring the nuanced intricacies of attributes individuals bring to their roles.

Now let’s look at the evidence - or lack of it

The hype surrounding skills-based hiring often rests on anecdotal success stories, with a notable absence of hard, quantifiable benefits. This lack of evidence casts a shadow of doubt over the entire thing, and for me this should be enough to challenge the rush towards a skills-centric model without a solid business case to back it up.

A few years ago I read a paper from Harvard called “Note of Structured Interviewing” by Amy Ross and Ethan Berstein. By combining Structured interviews with cognitive ability test will provide the best outcomes.

And here are some of the benefits: -

1. Improved Predictability
2. Reduction of Bias - They are designed to minimise unconscious bias
3. Focus on Skills and Competencies and how they have been applied and how they could in the future
4. Improved Candidate Experience - They have the highest satisfaction rating from interviewees
5. Consistency Across Interviews

Tech is not always the answer!

Technology's role in this narrative is both celebrated and questioned. While AI and data analytics offer sophisticated means to manage and analyse skills information, their value in fundamentally enhancing the skills-based approach is under scrutiny and rightly so. Does technology truly advance the skills-based proposition, or does it complicate an already uncertain model?

How do you strike the right balance?

The journey toward improving talent management teams doesn't mean you need to embrace of the skills-based model. Instead, it calls for a measured, sceptical approach, and that is just my humble feelings about it based on everything I have read and missing what I have not.

I suggest instead of integrating structured interviewing and evidence-based assessments into our processes, companies can develop better, effective talent management strategies that marry innovation with practicality.

So here is my go at summarising and some takeaways!

Before diving headlong into the ‘skills-based revolution”, it's crucial for Talent and People functions and business leaders to critically evaluate the merits and demerits of such a shift.

The huge costs and unclear benefits, combined with more reliable and proven alternatives that offer a more balanced view of talent, suggest that maybe our focus should be on refining and tinkering with the systems we already have in place.

I love innovating and new approaches and testing, yet in our quest for innovation, let us not lose sight of the proven, practical strategies that have served us well. The old saying is sometimes don’t try and reinvent the wheel.

So Let’s stay grounded and focus on what has worked and proven