What is Skills Based Hiring?

Skills-Based Hiring is a recruitment approach that prioritises a person’s demonstrated skills and competencies over traditional qualifications such as degrees, job titles, or years of experience.  Instead of focusing only education or previous job titles, employers assess whether candidates possess the specific skills required to succeed in the job.

Are the Person’s Skills Transferable to This Job?

The Key Aspects of Skills-Based Hiring include:

• Job descriptions are rewritten to emphasise required skills and often remove degree requirements

• Candidates are evaluated through skills assessments, practical tests, or by presenting evidence of their abilities, rather than relying solely on resumes or academic credentials

• Both hard skills (e.g., accounting ability) and soft skills (e.g., analytic ability, problem-solving, communication skills) are considered important

What are the Benefits of Skills-Based Hiring?

• Expands the range of possible candidates for the job in question by including candidates who may not have traditional qualifications but possess the right skills

• Increases the quality of hire as skills are more predictive of job performance than education or experience alone

• Lower staff turnover rates by ensuring a better fit between candidate abilities and job requirements

Unemployment in Ireland is at a continual low rate of 4%

Unemployment in Ireland is at a continual low rate of 4% and with a talent shortage in key areas for an ongoing period of time, Skills-Based Hiring is a great technique to use in order to ensure your organisation remains in a situation where you have sufficient people in every position required and more importantly, that they have the right skills to achieve your organisational goals.