The Power of a Skills-Based Approach to Early Career Hiring and Development
How leading organizations are leveraging skills assessments and predictive analytics to identify and nurture top early careers talent.
Share
Recently SHL hosted a webinar with leaders in the talent space to how they have tackled the challenge of effectively selecting early careers talent. We discussed the key principles of embracing a skills-based approach, the benefits they have seen and factors to consider when designing tailored assessment and development programs. Here are 3 key themes that came out from that discussion.
1. Qualifications Are not the Pre-Requisite They Once Were
Hiring has always been a dynamic, agile function but we are now at a stage where employers have recognized that qualifications are not predictive of job performance. Having a more robust program in place that looks at core requirements for workforce readiness and can be more targeted on skills that matter in role result in more accurate, and more successful hires. It also widens the talent pool, including those from more diverse backgrounds and experiences.
2. Skills-Based Hiring is Not Just for HR
Skills-Based hiring is a strategic and organizational shift that cannot be implemented overnight, but with the right effort and consideration can transform your entire business. It is not just an HR or hiring project but needs support and buy-in from all levels and areas of the business to be successful.
The benefits also stretch to early careers candidates themselves who are looking for their first roles and are often not prepared for the workforce. An engaging and informative hiring experience allows candidates to learn about what skills are required, expectations for the role, and the company culture, so they start with a better level of preparedness.
3. Assessments Are Used Across the Entire End-to-End Hiring Process
One interesting element from the discussion was how differently assessments are leveraged across Early Careers programs. Ryan Bash, Director of Talent Acquisition at Boston Consulting Group utilized assessments used at the start of the process to automatically sift high volumes of applications, improving efficiency and saving resource. Bryan Quick, Director Talent Acquisition at Abbott used assessments in the middle of their program to help candidates understand the skills they had and give feedback on areas for development. Finally, Elizabeth Diley, Talent Brand Leader at General Mills used assessments at the end of the process, so during interviews her team could ensure questions were fair and focused on the insights that were relevant to the role.
A consistent message was whatever the use case, organizations must be aware of any bias, ethical and legal considerations when choosing assessments and understand how they are validated to ensure they assess what you want them to.
Watch the full webinar replay of 'The Power of a Skills-Based Approach to Early Career Hiring & Development' to learn more about how to revolutionize your approach to early careers hiring.
