It is a difficult task to be able to assess whether someone will be a good fit for the role you are hiring for. Endless questions run through your mind. You may wonder whether they have the experience you think they’ll need, or whether their education means they’re not the right fit for the role. Often these thoughts are subconscious, but many things are repeated so often by those around us that we start to believe them. “Of course that entry level role in marketing should require a degree” or “but she doesn’t seem like the right fit for an engineer” become all too integrated within our thinking, and it seems everyone has a different standard for what makes the right fit for a role.
Within the following blog we will address some of the biases too many of us have, and discuss the simple recipe for success in hiring.
Biases:
From our childhood we have certain ‘facts’ drummed into our subconscious. If you’re intelligent, you will go to university, and if you’re really intelligent you will go to Oxford or Cambridge. Conversely, if you’re not, you will work in a supermarket, or on a farm. Surely we should be able to see that neither of those two statements are true. Intelligence is not dictated by whether or not you went to university, and there is the crucial element of choice in determining career paths- you may have been clever enough to go to Oxford but chose to work on a farm.
There are also all sorts of biases surrounding experience. If you have 20 years of experience you are far more qualified for a role in a different industry than someone with less than a year’s experience. All of these things are face value. Who is to say that that the person with less than a year's experience has not completed multiple courses in their spare time that make them more than ready for the role, and that the person with 20 years of experience has no interest in the available role.
Perhaps more sinister, are the biases we have that surround factors such as gender or background. Too often, candidates are immediately rejected from jobs because of where they are from, or which gender they are. It comes back to these horrible preconceived ideas that society feeds us- things like women shouldn’t work in the technology industry, or certain backgrounds are less likely to be proficient in certain roles. All of this is not only damaging to confidence and morale, but also prevents the future of the workforce from being representative of society as a whole.
How should we determine a successful candidate?
It sounds simple, but it’s incredibly effective. Skills. That’s all it should come down to- if someone has the skills to do the job. It really shouldn’t matter if you have gone to university, what course you did, how much experience you have, if you’re a man, woman, non-binary, or whatever background you’re from. If you have the skills you need to succeed, than that is the only thing that matters.
So, how can businesses adopt a skills-based hiring approach? It seems like it is the right way to hire talent, but how can you do it? The first thing to do could be identifying the key skills you think a job would need, and removing usual prerequisites such as years of experience, highlighting the competencies necessary. Another fundamental technique could be removing names and other irrelevant information from CVs or applications, ensuring that unconscious bias is removed, and candidates are judged based solely on their skills and what they could bring to a business. Alternatively, using a platform like Day One helps with adopting a skills-based hiring approach as we validate the skills of talents and remove all personal information from their profiles, ensuring that they are selected for roles because of their attitude and their aptitude for the role.
Conclusion:
There are so many biases which plague our thinking when it comes to the hiring process. Many of these are unconscious, but it does not make them any less harmful, both to businesses and individuals. These biases mean that companies lack diverse teams and thinking which relates to a lack of innovation and creative thinking. By implementing a skills based hiring approach, companies can ensure that they are not only selecting talent who are a perfect match for their role, but are also ensuring that they are giving everyone a chance. Skills based hiring is the future of hiring. Excited? Find out more here.
