Why your recruitment strategy needs more focus on competence and aptitude

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but maybe it's time to reassess that analogy. Recent research from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph highlights what we already know at Savvi Recruitment; the focus on skills in recruitment is changing, and organisations that don’t adapt will find themselves looking at smaller and smaller candidate pools as they struggle to fill roles. Read on to understand why.

The problem with conventional hiring practices

The traditional methodology for recruitment relied on matching employment history and educational achievement to identify the perfect candidate for a job. The problem is that this risk-averse approach misses opportunities for innovation or creativity, reduces the organisation’s adaptability and resilience, and can hamper efforts to improve diversity and inclusion.

Ireland is currently enjoying the lowest unemployment levels since records began. In an already small market, this has left employers facing ever decreasing candidate pools. In some of the more niche verticals we work in – for example, quantitative risk – there may be only 20 people in the entire sector who are a classic ‘match’ for a role.

Hiring strategies based on transferrable skills and aptitudes

What’s the answer? Leave behind this bias towards experience and qualification. It only shows you only who is a match on paper, not who will be the best match in real life. It also ignores the fact that motivated professionals upskill and train outside of the workplace (in both soft skills and hard skills) to ensure they can continue to bring value to organisations and stay relevant in a changing job market.

A skills-first approach will allow you to identify highly capable candidates who may have overwise slipped past you because they lack the traditional credentials associated with a role. LinkedIn’s Skills-First report shows that 75% of recruitment professionals predict that skills-first hiring will be a priority for their company in the next 18 months. In fact, nearly half of companies on LinkedIn explicitly use skills to search and identify job candidates on the platform.

Taking a skills-first perspective means we identify the core qualities and traits necessary for success in a particular role, and typically these are abilities that overlap with all kinds of jobs and sectors. Consider the tech sector for a moment. They really value people from other industries and don’t hesitate to hire people who in a previous role may have been, for example, the end user of the product being developed. It’s a very successful strategy.

Of course, it can be hard to define skills where you’re comparing apples and oranges. Some tips if you are embarking on this exercise are:

• Remember that past performance is no guarantee of future results.
• Look at whether the person has previously moved into a different type of role and was able to adapt quickly and successfully.
• Think about the capabilities and competencies that matter in the organisation, and not just what the person has to do on a day-to-day basis.
• Consider bringing aptitude testing into the recruitment process.

Breaking down roles in a skills-focused way

If you are interested in adding skills prioritisation to your recruitment process, I recommend you create a competency matrix to understand what the profile of the ideal candidate might look like. This is less about the role itself and more about the fit – i.e., the unique requirements of the role and the organisation (for example, problem-solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, or extraordinary focus).

Leadership is another area that might need to be examined through a new lens. Some people achieve seniority because of their technical ability, but that doesn’t necessarily make them great leaders. It wouldn’t be unusual for someone with slightly less technical ability to, in fact, be the better people manager. Think about how you can identify people who are, or have the potential to be, excellent leaders.

It's possible that your organisation has already hired in a skills-first way without even realising it. I’ve come across plenty of examples of employees able to move to very different roles internally because they were already known, and it was obvious that their skills were transferrable. We need to find better strategies to facilitate that kind of thinking when the person isn’t known to the hiring decision makers.

Openness and lateral thinking during this process will bring benefits that span the employment cycle and improve retention, engagement, and mobility.

Expand your pool and compete less for great employees

Traditionally, Irish companies have been very focused on finding candidates that previously held a similar role. There has been a reluctance to consider anyone who might need a little runway into a particular role. But in a world where change is inevitable, every single job is evolving and so must our way of thinking.

With shrinking talent pools an ever-present threat, putting in place some additional training and onboarding could see you hiring in half the time (we’ll often see roles open for six months or more because the pool is so small). If you’ve chosen for the right skill set, your candidate will be capable of transitioning in a time-efficient manner. Remember, smart people want to be challenged, stretched, and exposed to new experiences.

I would argue that this is exactly how you get the better person. And it means you don’t have to compromise on other vital areas, such as finding the ideal fit for the missions and values of the business. The LinkedIn report suggests that a skills-first approach can expand your candidate pool by 500%!

Here in Ireland, there’s even more need to think outside the box when it comes to recruitment. As recruitment professionals – whether in-house or in agency – we need to think more about what type of person will thrive in the role and bring long-term value to the business. People who have been successful in one career have abilities and capabilities that make them an asset to whoever snaps them up. Let’s be smarter about recognising this, or we’ll lose great people to overseas markets.

Learn flexibility from career switchers

Younger generations are spearheading new approaches to careers and life at work. Many are no longer taking direct career pathways; instead, they are deliberately crossing sectors and departments with each job move. These professionals don’t see themselves cruising down the same career river for the next 30+ years but are actively looking for new horizons and opportunities to grow.

How do you proactively manage people in this group? It comes down to understanding what motivates them and being open to giving them real mobility within the company in order to keep them challenged and engaged. Retention isn’t just about salary. It’s also about progression, development, and learning. Workers who made an internal move at their organisation at the two-year mark have a 75% chance of remaining there, compared to 56% for those who haven’t.

Embracing skills over stereotypes

I have seen countless instances of people successfully doing jobs that could be seen as the polar opposite of the work they did previously. They are absolutely thriving in these roles that play to their strengths. I also hear a lot of feedback from candidates frustrated that their interest in a new sector or vertical is met with stony silence from hirers or recruiters.

It’s madness to think that the career we went off to train for at 17 is going to fulfil us until the day we retire. There’s increasing interest in lifelong learning and development across the generations, and plenty of the “old dogs” I opened this blog with are actively learning transferrable skills right up to retirement. In this landscape, a skills-first approach is the only way to guarantee a resilient, diverse workforce.

Personally, I’d love to see the development of formal programmes within organisations where they bring in people from wildly different careers and give them a taste of a role they might be compatible with from a skills perspective. I think the results would be valuable and rewarding on both sides. Like I always say, there’s no point in doing the same thing you’ve always done and then wondering why nothing is changing.