Skill-Based Recruitment: definition & tips

Definitions: Skill-Based Organizations and Skill-Based Recruitment

There is no Skill-Based Recruitment without Skill-Based Organization. That's why it's important to lay the foundations of this business strategic approach with a few definitions.

• ‍Skill-Based Organization: This is a global organization chosen by companies who base their operations around their employees' skills, rather than defined positions and professions. Missions and projects are assigned according to the specific skills of employees, thus promoting agility and efficiency.‍
• Skill-Based Recruitment: This is also known as “Skill-Based Recruiting” or “Skill-Based Hiring”. This is an approach to candidate assessment that focuses on the key skills required for a given role, rather than on diplomas or years of experience. This applies not only to technical skills, but also to soft skills. This method enables talent recruitment tailored to specific needs, and provides a finer-tuned response to organizations' current and future challenges.

This approach has been seen as a trend for some time now, but it's increasingly important to integrate it, at least partly, into your Talent Acquisition strategy. But why?

The benefits of Skill-Based Recruitment: why should you adopt it?

Simply because it works. Better yet: it will work for years to come, even decades. There are many reasons why the future of Talent Acquisition is based on skills.

Here's a summary.

Tackling the shortage of motivated candidates and cognitive biases

Generally speaking, the shortage of candidates is very widespread. And even if there are candidates... It's sometimes difficult to find truly motivated profiles, who fit in with the company's challenges and culture. Yet it's only with these real matches (related to CV matching) that you can minimize recruitment errors and hire talent that will stay with you for a long time.

Basing your recruitment process purely (or at least predominantly) on competencies enables you to broaden your search considerably, and complete your talent pool in a richer and more effective way.

This means forgetting certain old habits (or biases) that are deeply rooted in the recruitment world:

• No longer look only for a diploma, certificate or training, especially for junior or recently-converted talent.
• Stop looking only for experience (“You've been a Technical Director”) or seniority (“You have at least 10 years' experience in Sales”).

You'll see that the field of possibilities will automatically open up, for the better.

Meeting candidates' needs: transparency and opportunities

More than 70% of Europeans would apply for a job that didn't match their profession but their skills*.

Just think of all the extra applications you could get! Don't miss out on these opportunities to recruit on competencies and interpersonal skills. You'll also offer a different, more open and honest way of approaching the professional world. This is probably not the case with the majority of your competitors: distinguish yourself!

Candidates are hard to reach, perhaps even harder to convince. They need transparency, they want to know how their daily life with you will be. If you explain the skills you need in a job ad, it's easier for candidates to think about:

• Why you're opening the position
• What their role and responsibilities will be
• Who they will be working with
• What you expect of him/her, and what he/she will not be asked to do
• How they will be assessed during the recruitment process
• Etc.

Candidate assessment needs to be adapted to this type of Skill-Based Recruitment. There are tools available to help you do this easily and efficiently.

*Source: CleverConnect / YouGov study: What do candidates expect from their relationship with recruiters?

Building high-performance teams that know how to perform as well as how to learn

Experience has never been a formula for success. Simply because everything evolves. A person can be very good at their job for 10 years, and then become discouraged by the arrival of a new tool, a new organization or a change of sector. Because there may be a lack of skills, such as adaptability, learning and understanding.

On the contrary, established skills ensure continuity in career development, no matter what barriers may arise. For example, someone with a proven ability to teach will find it easier to progress:

1. horizontally (other missions than their own, in the same or another department),
2. vertically (team management through listening and communication skills).

In the vast majority of companies, success is linked to performance. And to perform well in your assignments, you need assignments that match your skills. Selecting a candidate on this basis ensures a minimum of success without a long adaptation period or the uncomfortable feeling of not having fully embraced job responsibilities.

Skill-Based Recruitment: a focus on diversity

Performance also depends on the company's organization, teamwork and ability to work with different teams. Skill-Based Recruitment makes it possible to recruit a wider variety of profiles, and maximize the opportunities for a constructive exchange of points of view. This is essential in a world where you have to adapt to everything, very quickly. Finding innovative solutions is only possible when not all people see things in the same way 100% of the time. 

Capitalize on employees who can evolve and adapt

Businesses are changing so fast. AI, technologies, corporate organizations, political, environmental and social challenges, etc. Can you rely on a profile on a long-term basis because they've studied at such-and-such a school, or because they've already done the job you want to fill? Perhaps for a short period, but certainly not for the medium or long term.

Transitional professions, future professions, sensitive professions... These adjectives clearly show that companies are starting to associate the word “profession” with subtleties that are all linked... to skills. For example, if a profession is “in transition”, it's because certain skills are no longer useful, or others are becoming necessary to ensure the successful operation of a team and a company. 

By focusing on profiles with confirmed skills, in particular highly developed soft skills, you can prepare your organization for a future in which jobs are only just beginning to evolve.

According to France Travail, 85% of the jobs of 2030 do not yet exist! It's a great opportunity to capitalize today on recruitment that will serve tomorrow's transformations, which we know are inevitable.

Transferable skills, which are among the skills analyzed as part of Skill-Based Recruitment, enable employees to adapt smoothly and efficiently.

Setting up a Skill-Based Recruitment process: our advice and the steps to follow

Recruiting on skills doesn't require any major changes to the recruitment process, but it does involve a few mandatory elements: 

Internal approval for this recruitment method

Decide as a team, and with your hiring managers, that Skill-Based Recruitment meets your objectives and challenges. Everyone needs to validate the approach and its practical implications for the recruitment process (job description, interviews, evaluation grid, tools used, etc.).

You may choose to use this type of recruitment approach for some key positions only, especially in the early stages of implementation. You may then decide to extend this approach to all positions to be filled within your organization.

The most important thing is to be in complete agreement. 

Analysis of key skills and development of an appropriate job description

Identify in detail and as exhaustively as possible :

• core skills, which are essential for the position,
• secondary skills, which can be developed in the day-to-day experience, or through internal or external training.

Make this point clear in presenting the job offer, for greater transparency.

You should also emphasize “skills” at all levels of the job description, from job objectives to projects and missions. Don't place too much emphasis on diplomas or years of experience. You should also explain how the position will evolve, and how the selected profile will be guided to success after recruitment. 

Developing a skills-oriented talent pool

Using tags and filters within your talent pool makes it easy to identify key skills on any existing profiles in your database. You can also choose to create specific talent pools in relation to the skills you're looking for. Not only do you categorize profiles in a relevant way, but you also facilitate sourcing from within your own pools: existing employees ( yes, don't forget internal mobility!), former unsuccessful candidates, candidates you meet at a trade fair, etc.

Good to know: Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) software can be used to segment your talent pool in most precise and relevant way. It can also be used to mix and match segmentations for greater precision. For example :

• 1 defined pool: silver medalist (former candidates who have progressed far in recruitment process)
• + 3 filters: “Professional English” skills + “Data analysis” skills + “Teamwork” skills

Use assessment tools to better identify skills required

It's important to define the stages and choose the tools best suited to this type of recruitment: technical tests, practical scenarios, soft skills assessment (communication, leadership, adaptability).

This can be done face-to-face during individual or group interviews, or by phone / visio. But the ideal way to assess this type of skill is with a pre-recorded video interview, which enables you to :

• mix traditional interview questions with situational scenarios
• evaluate candidates for the same position with the same questions and rules
• give candidates the power to conduct interviews whenever and wherever they want
• save time on pre-qualifying candidates
• work more closely with hiring managers to identify the expected skills of candidates at the very start of the process 

Employee follow-up and training

Don't forget to provide support for recruited talent to:

• develop their skills,
• promote their development,
• ensure better retention within your teams.

Monitoring recruited talent in a Skill-based approach is founded on continuous and personalized skills development. This includes regular assessments to identify development needs, targeted training or mentoring to develop key skills, and frequent interviews to align aspirations with missions.

Internal mobility is also vital. Employees who evolve and get the satisfaction of training and learning stay longer.

They will also be more likely to recommend the company to their networks, whether as employer brand ambassadors or even by going further and referring some of their contacts.

Skill-Based Recruitment culture also plays its part if employees are aware of it, understand it and spread it. A referral program that allows not only referrals but also news and information about the company and its identity to be shared will help spread the word.

👉 Find out more: Referral: the complete guide for recruitment experts

Key tools for Skill-Based Recruitment

1. CV parsing and CV matching: AI and relevant algorithms can quickly identify the key skills of candidates in a CV or in a CRM profile. This facilitates skill-based sourcing.
2. Skills assessment tests: these tools guarantee accurate assessment of technical and behavioral skills, and improved pre-selection.
3. Pre-recorded video interview: easy to integrate into your recruitment process, this assessment tool makes it simpler to identify technical and behavioral skills on a common basis for all candidates, for unbiased comparison.
4. Recruitment CRM: CRM solutions automatically create and enrich talent pools based on skills, build relationships with these talents and offer them content and job offers linked to these skills.

Bonus: recruiters (or even hiring managers) can be trained in Skill-Based Recruitment, even though this is not a tool in its own right. Offering webinars or gamified training on the subject can be a considerable asset to this approach's success.

Preparing the teams involved in recruitment can help to overcome the main difficulty of Skill-Based Hiring: change! Like any change, the transition from traditional to Skill-Based Recruitment can bring its share of opposition. You can minimize this risk by managing the change carefully.

Prepare your teams now to succeed in a skills-based world of work!