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Minnesota Skills-Based Hiring Accelerator

About Us

This is the space to introduce visitors to the business or brand. Briefly explain who's behind it, what it does and what makes it unique. Share its core values and what this site has to offer. 

What are Skills-Based Talent Practices?

Skills-based practices refer to talent acquisition and development strategies that focus on a set of objectively defined skills, rather than more broad credentials such as college degrees, years of experiences, or past job titles.  This means creating criteria and hiring systems that assess candidates and develop staff based on the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to do a job.

Examples of skills-based hiring practices include:

  • Updating job postings to emphasize necessary skills, not degree requirements

  • Assessing and interviewing candidates based on knowledge and skills

  • Creating training programs to onboard and retain workers

  • Providing managers and employees with information about possible career paths, the skills those paths require, and resources to develop those skills

Why is it important?

This is the space to introduce visitors to the business or brand. Briefly explain who's behind it, what it does and what makes it unique. Share its core values and what this site has to offer. 

 5x Better Hiring

Hiring for skills is five times more predictive of job performance than hiring for education and two-and-a-half times more predictive than hiring for work experience.

 42% More Responses

Job descriptions that used more inclusive language led to 42% more responses and a two-week faster hiring time than those with less inclusive language.

More than 70% Savings

Businesses save 70-92% per employee when they use skills-based practices to build emerging skills in existing employees rather than hiring new talent.

What skills-based practices can look like across the talent lifecycle

Sourcing:
 Use inclusive language (focus on skills vs. credentials), e.g.

  • Update and publish new job postings

  • Connect with new talent pools (e.g., via worker serving organizations)

 
Assessment:
 Assess for required skills with standardized interview guides and assessments, e.g.

  • Update and implement new interview guides and rubrics

  • Evaluate assessments and add them to your interview process

 
Retention:
 Upskill new workers and enable internal mobility, e.g.

  • Connect with training providers

  • Develop internal ‘progression roadmaps’ from entry-level roles

  • Prioritizing internal trainings

 
Foundational to skills-based talent efforts are a universal skills language(ontology) and an understanding of required and preferred competencies (skills, knowledge, and abilities)

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