Skills-Based Hiring and Training Workshops:
Synthesized Results & Summary
1
Overview
 Synthesized results
 Workshop output
2
The benefits of skills-based hiring
Reduce Costs
Improve
Productivity
Upgrade recruiting
Benefit
Overview
 Focusing on skills, not college degrees allows an additional 70% of the US working population to
Improve the
apply (i.e., those without college degrees)
quantity and quality

By distinguishing “required” versus just “preferred” skills, job postings highlight the critical skills
of applicants
needed on day one from trainable ones otherwise good fit candidates can quickly learn
Enhance the
recruiting through
hiring process
 Skill-based hiring creates a need for HR and hiring managers to work together to identify and
define the key competencies for each position, helping create a shared view of what’s desired
 Skill-based hiring can drive consistency across the posting, recruiting, interviewing and hiring
process by focusing on candidate skills assessment from end-to-end
 Hiring talent based on key competencies and long-term potential builds a stronger talent base
(e.g., get the best, trainable talent, not just people deployable on day one)
Upgrade the onboarding process
 Skills-based hiring identifies the skills a new hire may need to work on be productive
 With this information, the on-boarding process can focus on the areas new staff needs the most
work on
Enable better
employee training
 Defining the key skills needed for each role can help both new and current employees train for
their current and future desired positions focused on well-defined, transparent skills
 HR managers can use a skills-based approach to talent to be more strategic in developing talent
Reduce costs
Support the
existing workforce
Build a better
company image
 Reduce direct recruiting and on-boarding costs by accelerating the hiring process and providing a
realistic job preview to reduce new employee turnover
 Reduce overtime costs driven by current staff having to fill in for open positions
 Reduce opportunity cost from limited production due to too many open positions
 Reduce the stress and overtime among existing staff – which can lead to decreased productivity
and burnout – by hiring good-fit talent more quickly to take open roles
 Give people a chance who may not have one and who may be underemployed or underutilized
 Make jobs open to unconventional applicants (e.g., workers from outside the industry or without
the typical profile) and attract capable candidates with different backgrounds who can bring in
new ideas and approaches
3
Key action items to adopt skills-based practices
What
How
Who
1
Create a
collaborative,
cross-functional
recruiting culture
 Get agreement to adopt skills-based hiring practices from the top based on its
ability to deliver bottom-line benefits to the company
 Sell hiring managers and other key decision makers on the need to adopt
skills-based hiring (why do it, how to do it, what to do)
 Potentially build a cross-functional competency team to drive awareness
internally and to drive progress forward internally
 Human Resources
 Senior management
team
2
Re-format job
postings and
descriptions
 Revise and refine job postings to implement skills-based best practices (e.g.,
focus on skills, distinguish required versus preferred, mark easily trainable
skills as preferred even if needed, limit education requirements)
 Use attractive language to present the company and “sell” the position
 Format job postings so they can be easily ingested by job sites
 Human resources
 Hiring managers
 Marketing department
3
Enhanced the
recruiting
through hiring
process
 Train hiring managers to asses on skills during the resume review and
interview process supported by tools (e.g., worksheets that highlight the key
skills and their assessment of a candidate’s capabilities)
 Conduct behavioral interviews that focus on competencies and specific
examples of competencies being used rather than applicant background





Deploy a skillsbased onboarding
process
 Identify the key skills new hires need to develop during the on-boarding
process based on insights gleaned from the recruiting and hiring process
 Use a structured on-boarding process to provide targeted training on important
skills the new hire lacks
 Human Resources
 Hiring Managers
 Supervisors
5
Create and
define clear
career paths
 Create and define clear career paths within the organization that specify how
staff move between roles
 Ensure career paths are conveyed clearly in job descriptions
 Align development programs with key needed skills and allow staff to focus
attention on skills needed for their next desired position
 Human resources
 Managers
 Senior management
team
6
Develop company  Invest in training programs and educational resources to further develop skills
talent
of employees and help them advance in career path
4
Human resources
Hiring mangers
COO
Operations department
Managers
 Human resources
 Senior management
team
4
Overview
 Synthesized results
 Workshop output
5
Overview of Skillful’s Job Posting Best Practice Workshop
Goals for the
session
1. Explain the benefits of skills-based job posting for employers
2. Explain how to create a skills-based job posting with both examples and bestpractices
3. Provide each company a customized report on whether their job postings are
being distributed widely online (using the Indeed-Skillful report) and, if not, what
they need to do to fix that problem
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Group 1: Benefits of Skills-Based Hiring
Benefit
Overview
Improve quality and
quantity of applicants
• “Larger applicant pool”
• “Grow talent pool for future generations”
• Ability to have “confidence in existing workforce – less disruptions”
Reinforces RJP
• Realistic Job Preview: If job preview accurately reflects the tasks and
responsibilities that correspond with the position, applicants (and those who
become future employees) will already have a clear idea of what the job
entails, and therefore less likely to leave position once hired
Improve employee
satisfaction
• Help employees “build knowledge to upscale career path after hire”
• Improve retention
Improve workplace
environment
• Increases workplace diversity
• Improves overall company culture
Reduce stress
factors and costs
•
•
•
•
“Reduces
“Reduces
“Reduces
“Reduces
employee turnover”
on-boarding and training costs”
time-to-fill positions”
over-time”
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Group 1: There are changes to be made to convert existing hiring
processes to skills-based hiring
What
1
Job descriptions
How
• List responsibilities in common language
Who
• Human Resources
• Focus on skills rather than experience/
education
2
3
Job Postings
Interview/ Hiring
Process
• Attractive language, emphasize on
marketing position
• Human resources,
• Include insights into company culture and
other relevant information to encourage
people to apply
• Marketing department
• Train hiring managers to focus on skills, not
checkbox requirement
• COO
• Don’t be lazy!
• Hiring manger,
Managers
• Interviews should be behavioral based focus on competencies rather than applicant
background
4
Training
• Companies must invest in further developing
skills of employees
• Hiring manager,
• Operations department
• CEO
• COO
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Group 1: Benefits of skills-based hiring (1/2)
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Group 1: Benefits of skills-based hiring (2/2)
10
Group 1: How to implement skills-based hiring (1/2)
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Group 1: How to implement skills-based hiring (2/2)
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Group 2: Benefits of Skills-Based Hiring
Benefit
Reduce costs
Strengthen company
image
Drive improvement of
internal structure and
employee training
Realistic job preview
Improve hiring
process
Overview
• “Better fit candidate = higher retention pool”
• “Stronger workforce = better company with better community image”
• Helps to communicate a “consistent message to new hires throughout onboarding process”
• “Creates clarity and simplicity for job seekers, having to process less
information overall”
• “Drive more purposeful development of job descriptions and training needs”
• “Grow managers through greater involvement – drive to being more strategic in
hiring”
• “Element of ‘employer of choice’, builds foundation for clearer career pathway”
• “Greater buy-in from new employees and all levels of the organization”
• Provides “important feed into company’s applicant tracking system”
• “Fosters greater consistency throughout recruiting, assessment/interviewing, and
hiring process”
• “Provide hiring managers with a much clearer idea of what is desired”
• “Greater alignment between HR and other functional areas”
13
Group 2: There are changes to be made to convert existing hiring
process to skills-based hiring
What
1 Organizational
Career Path
How
• Need to establish a clear career path within the
organization
• Connect employees to training/educational resources to
advance in career path
Who
• Human Resources
• Senior management
team
• This should map clearly to job descriptions
2 Role of HR team
• HR function is elevated to strategic level and closely
tied to senior management
• Establish the need for constancy of purpose and buy-in
from top
3 Job Postings
• Format and structure of job postings need to enable
easy ingestion by big job sites
• Human Resources
• Senior management
team
• Human resources,
• Marketing & Sales
• Work with marketing to really “sell” the job
4 Interview/ Hiring
Process
5 Metrics to
measure
success
• Identify and validate effective and non-discriminatory
methods for testing
• Hiring mangers
• Interview questions should be structured to align with
new posting strategy
• Managers
• Create structure/plan of action to track success of new
hiring method
• Human resources
• Recognize the need for continuous improvement
• Human resources
• Organizational
leaders
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Group 2: Benefits of skills-based hiring (1/3)
15
Group 2: Benefits of skills-based hiring (2/3)
16
Group 2: Benefits of skills-based hiring (3/3)
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Group 2: How to implement skills-based hiring (1/2)
18
Group 2: How to implement skills-based hiring (2/2)
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