Why your small business should hire for skills
Keep your hiring competitive with a strategy that looks past the college degree.
A new hiring mindset for the new normal
Companies — especially small businesses during the pandemic — are continuing to reprioritize their requirements for work. Instead of focusing on degrees, recruiters are switching to skills-based hiring.
What is skills-based hiring? It’s the practice of evaluating candidates based on their skills instead of their education or pedigree.
Hard skills, such as data analytics and cloud computing, are relatively straightforward to assess using competency tests
Soft skills, such as communication and creativity, are harder to evaluate and can be even more important on a smaller team
Why skills-based hiring matters to your small business
If you rely too much on a college degree as a strong indicator of someone’s potential, you might be missing out on great hires.
Broaden your candidate pool.
Only 36% of US adults have bachelor’s degrees or higher, yet 61% of talent professionals will reject highly skilled candidates simply because they lack institutional degrees. By overlooking candidates who don’t hold degrees, you’re missing out on an entire range of skilled, intelligent professionals.
DID YOU KNOW?
Around 75% of the new jobs that were added to the US economy between 2008 and 2017 required college degrees or higher, but nearly two-thirds of the labor force don’t have college degrees.
Save your company money.
Avoid degree inflation — making a four-year degree mandatory for jobs that don’t traditionally require it — which results in paying degreed candidates higher salaries.
Reduce bias and boost diversity.
In addition to avoiding degree bias, skills-based hiring ensures that you focus on more qualified, but underrepresented, individuals who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to apply.
Improve the accuracy of your hiring evaluations.
Skills-based assessments earlier on in the process can evaluate technical competencies faster and uncover whether candidates have the soft skills critical to growing a small business.
Hire faster.
Since this approach expands your candidate pool, you can connect with more talented people, discover qualified candidates faster, and speed up your time to hire.
Build a unique, lasting team.
With less bias, more diversity, and strong skill sets powering the team, employee morale, productivity, and retention naturally strengthen over time.
How to spot and assess important soft skills for your small business
Soft skills can be more difficult to evaluate than hard skills, but soft skills can become more prominent on smaller teams. Here are the soft skills that could most benefit your small business in the new normal, and how to spot them.
DID YOU KNOW?
57% of companies struggle to assess soft skills accurately.
Innovation
Why your team needs it:
Small businesses need people who can create and transform with limited resources. This soft skill tells you which candidates are genuine innovators.
How to assess:
Ask candidates about a time they did something radically different at work, or about how they will address future industry shifts. Learn more questions to ask that help you assess for innovation.
PRO TIP
Take advantage of LinkedIn screening questions when you post a job for free and save time by filtering out candidates who don’t meet basic requirements.
Culture add
Why your team needs it:
It’s easy to parrot others to blend in, but a unique personality can add brand-new modes of thought and energy to your small business. Learn more about why culture add is better than culture fit.
How to assess:
Asking candidates about volunteering and other activities outside of work can reveal their unique passions, hobbies, and hidden skills that can add vibrancy to your workplace.
DID YOU KNOW?
89% of talent professionals say bad hires lack soft skills.
Adaptability
Why your team needs it:
Industries and economies are rapidly evolving in anticipation of a post-pandemic world, so teammates should have the ability to adapt to changes — as well as provide quick turnaround.
How to assess:
Ask candidates about a time something went wrong or not as expected. Since small businesses often face unique obstacles, great candidates are those who can turn crisis into opportunity.
PRO TIP
Give your team new hiring skills to adapt to a changing business landscape.
Collaboration
Why your team needs it:
This soft skill is a quintessential requirement for smaller teams that rely on a closer bond to produce great work fast. Weaker links are more apparent on smaller teams, and new hires who don’t communicate or pull their weight can sabotage projects irreparably.
How to assess:
Ask candidates to tell you about a time they had to work with someone difficult. A skilled small business employee can overcome relationship turbulence and manage to produce great work with colleagues even when they don’t hold the same opinions.
Leadership
Why your team needs it:
Leadership skills demonstrate a level of emotional intelligence and an entrepreneurial spirit that move small businesses forward. On a small team, every teammate might be a key decision-maker.
How to assess:
Ask the candidates about a time they had to accomplish something and management was unavailable. How do candidates react when they take the wheel — especially when they don’t choose to?
DID YOU KNOW?
Emotional intelligence replaced time management as the top soft skill companies want.
How to add skills-based hiring to your process
Align with your team on the hard and soft skills required. If needed, fill out a hiring manager intake form to understand the exact requirements for the role.
Try LinkedIn Skill Assessments. Hard skills can be quickly evaluated through standardized, expert-created skill assessments that you can attach to your free LinkedIn job post.
Clearly state the required skills in the job post. If you’re not sure how to begin your post, try one of these job-specific templates.
Use the hybrid method of evaluation. Discover candidates’ soft skills through a combination of problem-solving and behavioral questions.
PRO TIP
Check out must-ask behavioral questions that evaluate several of the soft skills mentioned above.
Look beyond the college degree and grow beyond expectation.
Through skills-based hiring, you eliminate bias, widen your candidate pool, and invite diverse and talented people to keep growing your small business.
Find candidates who can take your small business further.