What is a skills based job description?
It is a type of recruitment approach which involves hiring candidates based on their skills and performance, and relevant certifications rather than their educational background, previous experience, or how prestigious their university is. These skills might not be formally acquired either – they might be self-taught through online courses such as Udemy or instructional videos or training to become e.g. an Adobe Certified Professional.
A skills based job description involves emphasising the exact skills that a candidate will need to perform at the right level in the role. This requires gathering information from managers and senior staff to find out what specialisations the role will require, as well as their typical workflows and day-to-day responsibilities.
The case for skills based hiring
Developing a skills based job description as opposed to more traditional job descriptions that emphasise degree qualifications can help employers to find candidates who have the exact skills required for the job. It helps recruiters to more efficiently source talent.
Our UK hiring landscape research has found that the labour market is less tight than in previous years, returning to pre-pandemic levels. However, there are still some issues for employers like employee retention. ‘36% of UK HR professionals say retention is their biggest priority for 2024: ‘89% of UK HR professionals say retention is as difficult as ever, or more so.’ Not only is creating a healthy workplace culture at the forefront of employers’ minds, making sure that you hire someone who fits the job description and is confidently able to fulfill their duties is a key priority.
According to our Tomorrow’s world global guide to the future of work: ‘The majority of HRDMs (48%) say recruitment will become harder over the next five years’, which strongly suggests that recruiters are still wary about positive improvements to the jobs market despite positive developments in the jobs market.
This provides a strong case for employers introducing new approaches to recruiters. Specifically, ones that can achieve aims such as reducing hiring costs and time to hire may make them more confident about future recruiting practices. Skills based job descriptions may be one of the simplest ways you can help them to source the right candidates easily.
Traditional degree vs skills based hiring practices
Traditional hiring processes might not be necessary or useful for roles that need up-to-date skills. In sectors that require cutting-edge technological skills and continue to be fast-evolving, degrees might not be as relevant as they used to be. Candidates with recent certificates in short courses in video editing or cybersecurity, for instance, may be preferable to those with degree qualifications studied several years ago.
Gain a better understanding of the role’s requirements
When you create a skills-based job description, it can help you to hone down on what skills someone will need for the role, which solidifies what you might actually require from someone in that role. By creating a profile of the ideal candidate, you are also learning more about how the role can be optimised to best meet that team’s requirements.
Technology and paradigm shifts can make degree knowledge less useful
Some skills taught during degree courses might also be made redundant due to shifts in technology and paradigms in certain markets. Our tomorrow’s world guide found that UK employees were the least confident about being prepared for change (72%) compared with an average of 78% of all respondents’ countries surveyed. Almost half of UK respondents also said that: ‘The skills needed in my job will change moderately over the next five years’.
While our study found that the majority of global employees feel confident and excited that they will be able to adapt to future changes, it is likely that candidates will have to adapt as well to meet new role expectations. If they are not receiving the same training as employees who are upskilling, it is likely that these skills will need to be self-taught or acquired via additional training courses.
It can also reduce unintentional bias
Skills-based hiring can also reduce bias. That’s because this type of hiring doesn’t emphasise the number of years someone has been in the role or how prestigious their university is. Rather, it emphasises whether they have the right training for the job itself.
This can be of benefit to both employers and candidates alike. That is because employers may be more likely to find the right fit, and skilled candidates without a prestigious educational background may get hired more quickly.
How to create a skills based job description
Before writing a skills based job description, it can be useful to research what the role entails first, as well as how the role might change in the future. This next section provides some considerations that may be useful to make.
Day-to-day processes and responsibilities
One of the first steps might be to consider what the day-to-day processes and responsibilities that the ideal candidate will have. Look at what their duties include on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Also consider any career progression or training opportunities that the role includes.
Gather information from managers, senior staff and high performing employees
Alongside working out what the role responsibilities will be, consider gathering information from managers and top performing staff to get an idea of what the role should involve. This is because they will likely have in-depth knowledge about the right skill set, since they’re experienced in the role. This stage of the process involves creating an ‘ideal candidate profile’.
What hard and soft skills to look for
It is also worth considering which hard and soft skills are relevant to both your industry and the specific role you are hiring for. In terms of soft skills, it can be a good idea to consider whether it is customer facing, whether troubleshooting involved, or whether the ideal candidate have to negotiate with business clients. If you foresee major changes to your industry, then flexibility and being a quick learner could be competencies to state in a job description and perhaps test for.
As for hard skills, these are the technical abilities that your ideal candidate will need to succeed in the role. For example, an architect will likely need computer aided design (CAD) knowledge, including certifications which show that they are able to productively use the software. If AI is going to be a new feature of the ideal candidate’s role, consider specifying the kind of AI training you are looking for.
Consider whether the role requirements will change in the future
Think about whether the role will change in the future and whether it will require a new set of skills. Think about whether your business strategy responds to changes in the market which could lead to different staff responsibilities. It could be useful to acknowledge this by asking for cutting-edge skills such as AI training, or stating that training will be offered via the job description.
Asking for verified skills and fresh certifications
You can also ask to see specific verified skills, such as certificates via reputable and officious sources such as Adobe. For cutting edge skills such as AI training, online courses may be the only ones available in your candidate’s region and so could be useful to accept in an application.
Skills based job description outline
Below is an example template of how to write a skills based job description. Employers may wish to tailor this example to their specific industry. However, the structure of the example suggested will hopefully be applicable to a range of different industries.
Job description
State the responsibilities that the desired candidate will take on. Consider describing what their duties will be on a daily and weekly basis. It can be a good idea to use inclusive language which doesn’t discriminate against employees on the basis of protected characteristics like their gender or age.
Description of company brand and ethos
Here, think about stating a narrative for the company brand, values, policies and overall aims of the business. This may also be a good opportunity to discuss career development and training opportunities if the candidate were successful.
Skills
In this section, describe the skills that an ideal candidate will have. You may wish to break this down into what is essential and what is desirable. Consider explaining both the hard or technical skills they will need, and the soft skills that they will need. If technical skills require a qualification, then think about making this as clear as possible. Also describe whether you will accept any transferable skills from relevant previous experience.
However, you might find that a degree based job description is still relevant if you’re hiring for a job that requires certain degrees or post-degree accreditations to practice in the field. Break down each skill or qualification into bullet points for clarity.
Using a skills based job description can help source quality candidates in a world where retention is one of the biggest recruiter pain points. Before writing a job description, consider sourcing information on the role from relevant managers, as well as consider whether the role could change in the future. A skills based job description might not be as useful when hiring for roles which require a degree or accreditations to practice in the field.
