Fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace has become a major criterion for most business firms worldwide. Why? Because this is what today’s employees are looking for in their workplace!
According to a recent survey on LinkedIn, almost 39% of the respondents have stated that they would like to work for a more inclusive company than their current one. Conversely, 38% of the recruiters specified that finding diverse candidates for interviews is a great barrier to making their companies more inclusive.
Skills-based and non-traditional hiring practices can bridge the supply and demand gap! Continue reading to learn the basics of inclusive recruitment practices.
Benefits of Skills-Based Hiring
Considering the current labor market, you may already understand that top talent does not always come from the Ivy Leagues or other well-known colleges or universities.
Some of your best hires may be previously self-employed, self-taught, from underrepresented communities or hardworking professionals returning to the workforce after a career break.
Thus, if you want the best hires for your company and intend to model inclusive recruitment practices, you need to focus on candidates’ skillsets more than anything. Here are some of the top benefits of skills-based hiring:
- Access to a more diverse talent pool
A company may miss out on hiring an exceptional employee if they focus primarily on their formal education. The applicant may not have the required educational qualifications that your company sets for a specific position, however, he or she may have the right skillsets, work ethics and willingness to work.
In such cases, if you stress the skillsets of the applicants rather than their educational background, you can tap a more diverse talent pool and ensure inclusive recruitment for your company.
- The most suitable person for a position
The educational background of an employee does not always guarantee the right skills for a particular position. However, a skills-based hiring practice is a solution to that.
Starting from employment history, certification and pre-employment testing, you can assess an employee’s skills in multiple ways. The main purpose of skills-based hiring is to ensure that the right person is taking up the right position. It will improve the workflow, and the employee will also have job satisfaction.
- Improved employee retention and loyalty
One of the perks of skills-based and non-traditional hiring is gathering a team of highly motivated and productive employees at work. Eventually, it also improves employee retention. As per LinkedIn data, employees without a 4-year traditional university degree are likely to stay 34% longer in the company than people with a degree.
Thus, without solely relying on formal degrees, you will get the best employees who would love their jobs if you prioritized their skills. However, you can also arrange regular workshops and on-the-job training to improve their skills and help them work on their shortcomings.
Now that you are acquainted with the perks of adopting skills-based and non-traditional hiring, you should know some simple ways to incorporate it into inclusive recruitment practices.
How to Get Started with Skills-Based Hiring for Inclusive Recruitment Practices
While there is no silver bullet to inclusive recruitment practices, the following are some straightforward ways to get started.
- Determine the expertise and skills required for the position
Before announcing an open position, you need to sit down with the interview and hiring team to discuss the skills, competencies and expertise needed for that job.
You also need to ensure that every member of the team understands the requirements. Predetermining the criteria will promote healthy hiring practices by reducing bias. It will also be a fair process for the candidates.
- Set specific goals
The job description has a lot to do with the right hiring. For example, if the job description contains more of your company’s or other vague information, it will be difficult for prospective employees to determine if they are a fit.
Additionally, you should have the answers to the following questions in the job description:
- Skills a new hire must already have for the job.
- Skills new hires need to learn from the job.
- Goals new hires need to accomplish within six months and a year.
Answering these questions will ensure transparency between the applicants and the recruiters.
- Leverage tools to assess employee skills
After you have perfected the job description with the skills required, you need to assess your candidates based on those skills. While interviewing is one of the ways to do so, you can make the whole process even more scientific by leveraging technical tools.
We all know it is difficult to understand a candidate and his or her skills from a single interview. However, utilizing technical tools will aid in the hiring process by giving the candidates real-life work experiences and testing their skills.
For instance, if you are hiring developers, one of the reliable ways to test their skills is to use collaborative coding, project tasks, or coding tests.
This will help you identify the applicants’ strengths, and you can hire the diverse and skilled employees your company requires. On the other hand, the applicants with the required skills can apply confidently regardless of their past work experiences or educational qualifications.
At MARS, we specialize in finding experienced talent in these important high-tech jobs. We will work with you to find the right talent, negotiate candidate terms and conditions, process background checks, and handle all post-hire compliance activities.
Our Returnship program connects you with people returning to the workforce who are both career-ready and eager to work with your team. We also provide them with custom training around the technology stack requirements of your company to ensure that they are fully prepared for the job!
