How Focusing On Skills Can Mitigate Hiring Biases

Hands-on assessment plays a pivotal role in modern talent acquisition

In today's rapidly evolving job market, where diversity and inclusion are increasingly being recognized as essential to creating a collaborative and resourceful business, the power of skills has emerged as a formidable tool to counteract the biases that can infiltrate the hiring process.
 

Traditional hiring processes emphasize factors that include titles and a candidate's background or education, but may not accurately reflect a candidate's adaptability, capability, or ability to learn and grow within a rapidly changing landscape. Focusing on skills enables employers to assess candidates on a level playing field, making smarter hiring decisions and avoiding costly compliance risks.

Hands-on assessment plays a pivotal role in the modern talent acquisition and retention process. It showcases a candidate's capability, confidence, and competence to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world situations. Employers can mitigate hiring biases and ensure a more equitable selection process by focusing on a candidate's demonstrable abilities and proven accomplishments rather than abstract or dated qualifications.

When recruiters give applicants opportunities to engage in projects, simulations, or practical challenges, their abilities take center stage, overshadowing an interviewer's preconceived biases. Skills-focused assessments align closely with job requirements, enhancing the probability of successful job performance and decreasing hiring mistakes that can be costly to productivity and morale.

Candidates evaluated through a hands-on assessment are more likely to demonstrate the practical knowledge and problem-solving abilities necessary to excel in their roles. This method supports employers in making informed decisions based on candidates' genuine potential to contribute effectively to the organization and mitigates hiring biases.

Utilizing the results of hands-on skill assessments levels the playing field for candidates, showcasing their skills in the selection process and overshadowing any biases that might otherwise cloud hiring decisions.

Leveling the Playing Field

Skills are objective facts and data points, providing concrete evidence of proficiency -- a tangible reflection of a person's abilities and future potential to perform in a role, transcending unconscious or conscious biases related to gender, race, age, or other non-essential factors.

By evaluating candidates based on practical abilities and bringing hands-on experiences into the talent acquisition process to validate skills, organizations open themselves up to a more diverse pool of talent that might otherwise be overlooked due to unintentional or intentional biases.  

The foundational change to using hands-on, skills-based assessments provides added protection from allegations of discriminatory hiring due to matching job-specific needs with clearly proven and validated abilities. Also, there is an organic benefit of furthering organizational DEI efforts. The legal and productivity risks of solely relying on traditional interviewing practices to determine a candidate's likelihood of success in a role are replaced with accurate, measurable data.

Skills assessment rooted in hands-on learning offers a promising solution to not just acquiring talent that can be successful in the job, but also supporting an organization's talent management strategy by objectively supporting internal talent mobility, talent resource redundancy, and talent retention.

Since you now have proof of abilities, the candidate pool will include people you may not have considered, both externally and internally—a game changer for your talent acquisition teams, hiring managers, and your organization.

Break out of the box and escape the silos. Can an engineering project manager be a good fit for a product marketing position? Yes, which means you have a new candidate pool if the skills align with the role! Internal candidates are given greater consideration for an expanded or new career path, which could further promote the organic spread of diversity and inclusion across organizations.

Employees prove and continuously develop and refine skills through direct current hands-on experience versus being judged by their current professional or historical job titles.

As hiring skilled talent continues to be a critical variable in the overall success of organizations, hiring compliance and supporting a diverse workforce will remain a top priority. Hands-on assessments and learning will ensure all of these priorities are equitably managed with the simplicity of facts and applied business intelligence.

Author Bio

Lori Cummings is SVP of People Success at Skillable.