DOL Releases Employer Guide for “Skills-First” Hiring

 In

This month, the U.S. Department of Labor published a guide for employers on “skills-first” or “skills-based” hiring practices, which it defines as “the hiring or promotion of workers around skills, knowledge and abilities that workers can demonstrate they have, regardless of how or where they attained those skills.” The guide is intended to assist employers with hiring, promotion and management based on worker skills rather than degree qualifications, with suggestions that are summarized as follows (the guide contains more detail):

  • Getting started. The DOL asserts that success requires early buy-in from leadership, hiring managers, human resources, and union representatives. Some considerations identified by the DOL include: understanding why you are using skills-based hiring (e.g. quicker hiring, improved performance, increased retention) and tracking/sharing results; identifying the right job with discrete skills and responsibilities; and creating benchmarks and timelines.

 

  • Identifying a job’s skillsets. The DOL suggests the first step is figuring out the “core” skills and “great-to-have” skills, which can be done by asking questions about the purpose, required skills for success, importance of each skill to success, and skills that can be learned on the job. The second step is to use public resources (and the DOL provides some links) to check for other relevant skills for the job. And the third step is to build a scoring tool for grading a candidate’s skills.

 

  • How to evaluate skills. The DOL emphasizes the need to perform evaluations consistently for each candidate. It proposes a first step of establishing how to screen for skills, by organizing a list of experiences or credentials that show relevant skills. The next step is picking how to evaluate candidates that make it through screening, using multiple methods such as interviewing (with structured questions), hands-on skills evaluations, simulations and role-playing, and written tests. The DOL also focuses on the need to make the evaluation accessible, in order to expand the talent pool and avoid miscommunications, such as by avoiding technical language, providing access for those of differing physical and technical abilities, diversifying review panelists, offering phone interviews, and sharing interview questions in advance. The third step is scoring skills in a rubric that is personalized to the workplace needs and relevant skills.

 

  • Recruiting. The DOL asserts that job postings should be in plain language, state that skills take priority, invite applicants to share alternative learning experiences, and tell applicants what to expect.

 

  • Hiring and onboarding. The DOL identifies “key considerations” to include focusing on the candidate’s skills, valuing those skills in pay, and setting up success by creating inclusive workplaces.

 

What comes next? The DOL explains that, following the first skills-based hire, employers should think about what worked well and what could work better. It also cautions employers that seeing the benefits of this approach can take years.