In lieu of a full shift to skills-based hiring, try this

In today’s competitive labor market, skills-based hiring initiatives are gaining traction in many industries. As recruiters seek to broaden the candidate pool, job postings on LinkedIn that focus on skills and responsibilities over educational qualifications are up 21% in the past year. According to experts, hiring for skills is five times more predictive of job performance compared to hiring based on education. Still, it’s a major shift in approach and process.

For those of you not quite ready to go “all in” on skills-based hiring, consider starting an “in lieu of” project within your organization. It can be a good way to explore this new way of assessing talent. Here’s how an in lieu of project got started at one of my prior organizations.

When working with a hiring leader, I presented a candidate with significant experience in the area their role required. The only issue? The candidate had stopped their formal education at the high school level and the role required a Master’s degree. I asked the leader if they would like to consider the candidate. Their answer was a resounding “yes.”  I explained that due to the way they had written the job requirements meant we would typically have to pass on this candidate, but if they added an “in lieu of” requirement for the Master’s degree, then this candidate (and others) would be available to them. We quickly made the adjustment.

From there, we expanded the program to have all recruiters ask hiring leaders if adding an “in lieu of” was appropriate for their roles. As a result, we were able to add the provision to many positions, which opened up opportunities to those with hard-earned real-world experiences and expanded how our hiring leaders define their ideal candidates.