The “Skills First” trend that has become ubiquitous in HR media over the last couple years has drawn attention to these salient points regarding key historical employee selection criteria:
- Education and Experience don’t work. They are correlated with job performance at .10 and .07 respectively based on the latest meta-analytic data (Sackett et al).
- Education and Experience introduce bias. Weeding people out based on either criterion frequently eliminates disproportionately large numbers of people in certain races and socio-economic classifications.
- We use Education and Experience as a “PROXY” to make certain assumptions about traits and capabilities. We do this because it’s easy, but it’s time to recognize that it’s doing more harm than good.
- We need to recognize that people can gain skills in lots of different ways, so let’s ditch the outdated and ineffective education and experience requirements and broaden our minds.
Does that mean we should hire a self-taught surgeon? Of course not. Generally speaking, education requirements make sense when a person can’t reasonably gain the required knowledge in any other way. Often, we mistakenly ASSUME that because someone has a degree they are PROBABLY relatively smart, capable of learning, can stick to something for a few years, etc. But… you know what they say about ASSumptions! Requiring a degree also automatically eliminates more than 50% of the applicant pool—disproportionately so along racial and socioeconomic lines—AND those seeking a four-year degree is on a steep decline. Continuing to require a degree when one is not strictly necessary seems positively ASSenine when taking all factors into account.
So, what about previous experience? We want to be careful here too. We look for what we have deemed “relevant” experience thinking that MAYBE this person won’t need to be trained as much, or that maybe they like this kind of work, or that maybe if they’ve stayed at a job for a while they’ll stay with us for a while. That sounds more like wishing than strategy.
A note regarding “job hoppers”? Ask yourself what you think moving jobs frequently means. If someone stayed at a company for a long time, maybe they’re lazy; or lacked the confidence to look for something new; or were related to the owner. Don’t assume! Identify what you wanted them to GET from those experiences and focus on that. Ask: Have you been trained on XYZ? What parts of your job did you like/dislike? What are you looking for in a job? Especially with the turmoil of the last 5 years, it may be time to broaden our minds. Maybe this candidate is sick of change and is looking for their forever home!
Instead of checking the proverbial box regarding education and experience we need to focus on transferrable skills and screen IN based on POTENTIAL not OUT based on experience. And, even if you are to verify that this applicant has the skills and knowledge they need to come in the door and hit the ground running, there is still a lot we don’t know about them. What about attitude, work ethic, interpersonal skills, motivation, willingness to be coached, temperament, emotional intelligence, commitment, ability to learn and adapt to change?
So, where does that leave us? Here are my recommendations:
- Let’s go all-in on changing the paradigm of how we hire. Stop relying on education and experience as a top-of-funnel screen for most jobs. This will take some deliberate change management, especially with your recruiters & talent acquisition teams. Verifying skills and knowledge via testing, simulations, work samples or other methods is far better (more effective, fair, and inclusive) than assuming someone possess certain skills and abilities just because they’ve completed a degree or held a certain job for a certain about of time.
- Let’s get better at understanding what actually correlates with success. In my experience, very few companies have methodically identified what matters most—is it reliability, mechanical aptitude, initiative, empathy, intellectual curiosity, adaptability, critical thinking (the list is infinite)? Once you have a clear picture of what you’re selecting for, the selection process falls into place.
- Let’s leverage assessment tools that are meticulously selected based on their ability to scientifically measure the things that matter most to you. This mitigates human bias, increases consistency and accuracy, and sends the message to candidates that you’re making decisions based on data rather than subjective opinions (like what they wore to the interview or whether they sent you a handwritten thank you note).
