New report highlights potential of skills-first hiring
More than half of employers in six countries reported that hiring has become more challenging over the past three years, according to a new report from Indeed.
The report revealed that 58% of employers in France, Canada, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom believe that hiring is increasingly challenging.
"The survey responses revealed a paradox in why hiring has gotten harder: Job seekers say their biggest challenge is a dearth of quality roles to apply for," the report read.
"But employers say their biggest hurdle is a lack of quality applicants — a third of managers say the lack of candidates is a significant or critical issue for their organisation."
According to the report, the real problem is the difficulty in connecting the right candidates to the right jobs, underscoring the need to rethink how employers hire.
Respondents believe that a quality hiring process in today's employment landscape should focus on candidates' actual skills, paving the way for a skills-first approach to recruitment.
"Skills-first hiring means sourcing and evaluating candidates based on skills, regardless of where or how they gained those skills," the report read.
More than a third of employers (36%) believe that skills-first hiring is about evaluating candidates primarily based on their demonstrated competencies relevant to the job.
Overall, nearly half of employers across the world have already defined a skills-first hiring strategy, with France leading the pack and the United Kingdom lagging.
Among the employers who don't have a skills-first hiring strategy, 41% of them said they have no plans to adopt one, with their most cited reason being they believe the current approach brings the candidates they need.
The report, however, noted that regional variations suggest that employers are less aware of the benefits of skills-first hiring if they're less familiar with it.
"The more employers understand skills-first hiring, the more they understand its potential — and the barriers to adoption," the report read.
"Even employers who do have a skills-first strategy often lack key resources, like screener questions and skills-based evaluation tools, that help make quality connections with job seekers. As organisations build their capacity for skills-first hiring, technology can help bridge that gap between ideology and implementation."
