Rethinking Talent: A Practical Guide to Skills-Based Hiring, Part 3

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Rethinking Talent: A Practical Guide to Skills-Based Hiring, Part 3

Written by: Stefan Lint, Talent and Workforce Solutions Advisor

PART 3. HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SKILLS-BASED HIRING

Read Part 1: What Are Skills, Anyway?
Read Part 2: Why Skills Matter

It's one thing to recognize the power of skills in today's business world; it's another to figure out how to actually start leveraging them within your organization. For HR and business leaders the idea of a comprehensive skills strategy might seem daunting. But here's the good news: you don't have to overhaul everything overnight. The best way to begin is with a focused pilot program to demonstrate impact, earn buy-in, and build momentum.

Let's explore how you can effectively kickstart your skills strategy and demonstrate its value.

Why a Pilot Program?

Implementing a full-scale skills strategy across your entire organization can be complex. A pilot program offers a low-risk, high-learning approach. It allows you to:

Test the waters: Validate your assumptions and identify what works (and what doesn't) in your specific environment.
Demonstrate value: Show tangible results to stakeholders and build momentum for broader adoption.
Learn and iterate: Refine your processes and tools before a wider rollout.
Manage change: Introduce the concept of a skills-based approach incrementally, without overwhelming or disrupting employees.

Choosing Your Pilot Area: Where to Begin?

The key to a successful pilot is selecting an area where you can see clear benefits and manage the scope. Consider these factors:

1. A Department or Team with Clear Skill Gaps: Do you have a specific department that's struggling to find certain expertise, or where current employees need significant upskilling due to new technology or processes? For instance, if your company is adopting advanced robotics in a specific manufacturing line, that team's skills would be an excellent starting point.

2. A Critical Role or Job Family: Is there a particular skilled trade role that's notoriously difficult to fill, or where turnover is high? Focusing on the skills required for this role could yield significant insights and improvements in your talent acquisition efforts. Think specialized welders, CNC machinists, or master electricians.

3. A Specific Business Problem: Is there a particular recurring business challenge you're facing that you suspect is skill-related? Perhaps quality control issues stemming from a lack of specific diagnostic skills, or project delays due to insufficient project management capabilities within a team.

4. An Open-Minded Department or Manager: Choose a team or a manager who is open to innovation, understands the value of skills, and is willing to collaborate closely with HR. Their enthusiasm can be infectious and will help drive success.

Steps to Launching Your Pilot Skills Strategy

Once you've identified your pilot area, here's a step-by-step guide to get started.

1. Define Your Pilot Scope and Objectives

Be crystal clear about what you want to achieve with this pilot. Do you want to:

Improve time-to-fill for a specific role by 20%?
Identify critical skill gaps in a department and create development plans for 70% of employees?

Increase internal mobility for a priority skill set? Reduce training costs for a specific area by improving targeted training

2. Identify and Define Key Skills

This is the core of your pilot. For your chosen department, team, or role, collaboratively work with subject matter experts (SMEs)—your most experienced tradespeople and supervisors—to create a list of the essential skills required.

Go granular: Instead of "welding," specify "TIG welding on stainless steel" or "MIG welding for structural components."
Include human skills: Don't forget crucial capabilities like analysis, problem-solving, safety compliance, blueprint reading, and skills for leaders such as leading meetings, delegation, assessing team performance.
Establish proficiency levels: For each skill, define what "basic," "intermediate," and "advanced" proficiency looks like. This provides a clear benchmark.

3. Assess Current Skill Levels

There are various ways to do this, even in a pilot:

Self-assessments: Have employees assess their own proficiency against the defined skills. Provide clear guidelines.
Manager assessments: Managers can evaluate their team members' skills using these same guidelines.
Peer feedback: In some contexts, peer evaluation can offer valuable insights.
Observation/Certification: For hands-on trades, direct observation or existing certifications are powerful indicators.
HRIS data: Leverage any existing training records or certifications in your HR system.

4. Analyze the Gaps and Develop Action Plans

Compare the required skills with the current skill levels. This will highlight your immediate skill gaps. Based on these gaps, develop targeted action plans.

Training: Identify specific courses, workshops, or certifications.
Mentorship: Pair employees with skill gaps with internal experts.
Cross-training/Job Rotation: Provide opportunities for employees to gain hands-on experience in new areas.
Recruitment: For critical gaps that cannot be filled internally, refine your job descriptions to reflect the specific skills needed for external hiring.

5. Implement and Monitor

Roll out your action plans and continuously monitor progress. Track your pilot's results. Are you meeting the objectives defined in Step 1? Are you seeing improvements in time-to-fill? Are employees progressing in their skill development?

6. Evaluate and Communicate Results

Once your pilot period concludes (e.g., 3-6 months), thoroughly evaluate its success against your initial objectives. Document the challenges, successes, lessons learned, and, most importantly, the tangible impact on your business. Present these findings to senior leadership and other stakeholders. Use this data to advocate and plan for expanding adoption to other roles, functions, etc.

From Pilot to Practice

Starting a skills strategy doesn't require a massive initial investment or team of consultants. You need a plan and the willingness to test, learn, and adapt.

By selecting a focused pilot area, collaborating with your subject matter experts, and demonstrating clear results, you can build a compelling case for a broader, more impactful skills-based approach. This incremental approach will not only make the process manageable but also ensure that your skills strategy is truly tailored to the unique needs of your organization and its highly valued skilled trades workforce.

This concludes our 3-part series, “Rethinking Talent: A Practical Guide to Skills-Based Hiring.” (If you missed Part 1 – What Are Skills, Anyway? or Part 2, Why Skills Matter, be sure to check them out.)

Would you like to explore how Skills-Based Hiring can work within your organization? Contact us to start the conversation.

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