Skills-first hiring: how to turn good intentions into real action 

Key takeaways

• The majority of employers see the value in skills-first hiring, but far fewer are adjusting their recruitment strategies accordingly.
• Start small by piloting a skills-first approach for a single hard-to-fill job.
• Don’t stop at rewriting job descriptions. Make a case to hiring managers about why skills-first hiring matters and offer training to implement it.

When it comes to finding the right person for a job, employers are increasingly realising that jobseekers’ actual skills are more important than their pedigrees. The majority of employers (51%) now say on-the-job experience is a key indicator of a quality candidate, according to a 2024 Indeed-commissioned survey conducted in partnership with YouGov in the US and five global markets. Only about a quarter say the same about jobseekers’ education.

Skills-first hiring (focusing on the skills a candidate brings to the table rather than requirements unrelated to the position, such as degrees or years of experience) is clearly gaining traction. Indeed Hiring Lab data, for example, shows a clear trend in the US of employers dropping their requirements for bachelor’s degrees – a positive shift benefiting many jobs, though more progress is needed. 

Many employers still aren’t adjusting their recruitment strategies accordingly: just 13% say they’ve edited job listings to remove degree and tenure requirements, according to the 2024 international YouGov survey. A similarly small fraction (17%) say they have actually trained staff in how to screen and hire for skills. 

Action on skills-first recruitment is likely lagging due to gaps in knowledge about how it works. ‘Many employers are unfamiliar with skills-first recruitment,’ says LaFawn Davis, Indeed’s Chief People and Sustainability Officer, ‘so they need to understand what the strategy entails and why it’s good not only for people but for business.’

There's plenty of evidence to guide them. Research has found that employers who implement skills-first recruitment strategies (also known as skills-based hiring or skills-based recruitment) find qualified job candidates twice as easily. Those candidates have also proved to be more productive and motivated recruits, says Debbie Dyson, CEO of the non-profit OneTen, which aims to unlock career opportunities for talent without four-year degrees. ‘If someone has been trying to get a job and has been eliminated because they don’t have a degree, when an employer finally sees them and is willing to take a chance on them, their loyalty to that company increases significantly,’ she says.

Here’s how to move from interest to action and begin reaping the benefits of a skills-first workforce.

Start small when recruiting for skills

At the most basic level, skills-first recruitment means prioritising the skills required on Day 1, rather than degree and tenure requirements. But there's more to it than that. Writing skills-first job listings requires using inclusive language and having a clear understanding of the role’s specific responsibilities and required capabilities.

Suppose you’re looking to hire a recruiter. A traditional listing might ask for a ‘team player’ with a bachelor’s degree and five years of experience ‘working in a recruitment environment.’ That vague language says little about the skills applicants should actually bring to the table. 

By contrast, a skills-first approach to the same listing might ask whether jobseekers have conducted interviews and partnered with hiring managers to decide on new recruits. 

The biggest misconception about skills-first recruitment is that it’s an all-or-nothing endeavour, says Jacob Vigil, Director of the Rework America Alliance, a national initiative focused on helping people move from low-wage roles into quality jobs through skills-first recruitment and training. (The alliance is part of Jobs for the Future, which offers resources and tools to advance skills-first recruitment and talent management practices.) 

Vigil says his top tip for employers is to start with just one or two challenging job listings. That might include open roles that aren’t getting any applicants or roles that are being flooded with applicants, none of are a good fit. ‘Start with the low-hanging fruit,’ Vigil says.

Get help with skills-first recruitment

Not every job is ripe for a skills-first approach. ‘If someone is getting surgery, they might expect their surgeon to have a degree,’ says Ebony D. Thomas, Managing Partner at Grads of Life. ‘But does every software engineer need the same level of credentials? Maybe not.’ Organisations like Grads of Life, Rework America Alliance and OneTen work with employers to identify jobs that might be a good fit for removing degree requirements, and help them assess the essential skills required for the jobs and rewrite job descriptions accordingly. 

Indeed launched a partnership with Grads of Life last year to train 10 companies in skills-first strategies, from how to ‘re-credential’ job descriptions to how to conduct a skills-first interview. ‘The intent is to facilitate peer-to-peer conversations among employers, so they can learn from each other’s skills-first journeys and exchange best practices,’ Thomas says. 

Bring the whole recruitment team on board

In many ways, rewriting a job description is the easy part. Actually using skills-first methods to hire a candidate is tougher. 

Indeed’s US data shows that employers are 25% less likely to move forward with applications from jobseekers who lack industry experience, even if they have the relevant skills. That’s despite the fact that there are 2.6 times more applications from jobseekers who have relevant skills but lack industry experience. 

And research by Harvard Business School and The Burning Glass Institute shows that, despite a fourfold increase in the number of job listings without degree requirements between 2014 and 2023, there was only a 3.5% uptick in the average number of people without degrees actually being hired for those roles. 

‘For decades, going to university was believed to be the thing to do,’ Thomas says. ‘Over time, that belief created an inaccurate stigma around non-degreed talent not being capable.’ For example, OneTen’s survey of hiring managers shows that some employers worry jobseekers without degrees lack interpersonal and communication skills, which are harder to assess in interviews.

To win over recruitment teams, employers should help set them up for success. That means upskilling them and equipping them with the right tools, such as interview rubrics that ensure every applicant is getting the same questions and is judged on what they can do, rather than where they’re coming from. Hiring managers may also need help looking beyond their usual university recruitment channels – think regional workforce centres or skills-based training programmes that develop the exact abilities they’re hiring for.

But while these tactical measures are important, the only way hiring managers are going to use them is if they understand why skills-first recruitment matters. ‘Employers have to highlight the benefits of skills-first hiring,’ Vigil says. Among them: it may help reduce mishires, increase retention and be cost effective.

One way to win over hiring managers is to track the impact of skills-first recruitment over time. Grads of Life, for one, developed an Impact Measurement Framework, an inclusive set of metrics that employers can use to monitor and track the growth and outcomes of their skills-first practices.

For instance, how many people without a four-year degree are being hired? And how do their performance reviews compare to those of their colleagues with degrees? When hiring managers do embrace skills-first recruitment, celebrate their wins. ‘Recognition goes a long way,’ Thomas says, ‘and kudos are free.’ 

Finally, skills-first recruitment shouldn’t be viewed as an altruistic initiative. At a time when the labour market is tight, Dyson says, it’s a business imperative. ‘There’s not enough talent based on the criteria that are in place today,’ she says. ‘When employers rewrite their job descriptions, the talent pool expands.’ 

Disclaimer: Indeed provides this information as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your recruitment or legal adviser, we are not responsible for the content of your job descriptions and none of the information provided herein guarantees performance.