5 ways a ‘skills-first’ approach unlocks access to future jobs

The term ‘skills first’ is increasingly used to describe a new approach to talent management that emphasizes a person’s skills and competencies – rather than degrees, job histories, or job titles – regarding attracting, hiring and developing talent.

By focussing directly on skills, rather than on how they have been acquired, a skills-first approach has the potential to democratize access to economic opportunities and pathways to good work for many more people than traditional approaches.

For employers, a skills-first approach creates a significantly more robust talent pipeline and helps to address skills shortages. Indeed, 40% of hirers on LinkedIn used skills to fill open roles in 2022 – up 20% year-over-year.

These employers were 60% more likely to find a successful hire compared to those not relying on skills as part of the hiring process.

Here are five ways taking a skills-first approach can help recruit and sustain skilled talent:

There is a big and increasing unmet need for talent for jobs of tomorrow – newly-emerging roles critical to our economies and societies – including, for example, 69 million teachers, 300 million new jobs in the care economy, and demand for workers with digital and green skills, which will significantly surpass supply in the next five years.

Taking a skills-based approach can help employers find non-traditional talent and help candidates to understand the skills they have and the ones they need to acquire. This information can also be useful for candidates to pursue a personalized learning plan for training, upskilling and/or reskilling as needed, preparing them to unlock a desired future job.

Skills were not a big part of the conversation in traditional hiring practices. Candidates used to be hired based on their education qualifications and job histories as predictors of their likelihood to succeed in the role.

Skills-first hiring works within the reality that not everyone has the means or time to pursue higher education and at the same time doesn’t negate the university degree. Therefore, emphasizing focus on how candidates can demonstrate their skills to get the job done has proven to be effective.

In 2022, companies including Accenture, Apple, General Motors, EY, Google, IBM, Merck and PwC, among others, removed degree-based application requirements for several roles and opened employment access to non-traditional applicants.

According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report 2022, having opportunities to learn and grow is now the number one factor that defines an exceptional work environment.

Most industries have traditionally focused on offering training based on existing off-the-shelf training and development solutions to their employees. Today, industries and individuals need learning and development solution that are focused on helping individuals upskill and reskill based on business needs and their own needs.

In this regard, skills-based learning programmes are targeted to specific skills that matter to the future workforce. By investing in individuals' skills needs and aspirations, there is an expected increase in trust between employers and employees, which is a key enabler for employee engagement, satisfaction and retention.

Traditionally career pathways have been linear, focussing on specific occupational fields ranked from highest to lowest based on level of responsibility and pay. Today, skills empower individuals to take charge of their careers, in terms of helping them decide for how long they want to stay in a current role, and how they want to leverage existing skills to transition into other roles within the same organization, or in other organizations and industries.

The skills-focussed career pathway enables individuals to pursue vertical and horizontal mobility within the organization, including opportunities like job enhancement, dual career ladders, and accelerated or dialled-down career pathways, among others.

It offers the opportunity to take a stock of skills in their organization and exchange skilled candidates with other organizations based on industry needs and candidate interests, enabling the cross-industry movement of skilled talent.

Historically, when business leaders carry out workforce planning, most of them have focussed on demand and supply of individuals for specific job roles, based on the assumptions that these job roles and their associated responsibilities, skills requirements, performance measurement and other specs would not change over time.

Using the skills-first approach, organizations will be able to develop a holistic view of the talent and skills they have today across functions, and job families and compare that against the skills they would need to achieve long-term business strategy.

By overlaying skills supply and demand across the whole organization, HR, line managers and business leaders can better understand if the business strategy is achievable, where skills gaps are prevalent, and what investment will be needed to make a difference.

The World Economic Forum has recently launched a revised and interactive version of the Global Skills Taxonomy to ensure a unified skills language globally and is currently drafting a Skills-First Playbook in collaboration with PwC to help organizations, individuals and governments pursue skills-first practices to gain access to skilled talent.