Solution: Talent Advisory

Early Careers Recruitment: Meeting Gen Z’s Expectations

Posted on by akessler

Early careers recruitment is undergoing a seismic shift as Generation Z enters the workforce en masse. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all early careers hiring strategies. Gen Zers aren’t shy about demanding more—more purpose, more flexibility, and more growth opportunities. Organizations who can navigate these expectations will win the hearts of Gen Z in the workplace.  

Meeting these expectations isn’t just about filling entry-level positions; it’s about future-proofing your organization. In this new landscape, companies that crack the code of Gen Z recruitment will gain a significant competitive edge. Let’s explore some of Gen Z’s expectations and ways you can revolutionize your early careers recruitment to attract and retain the brightest minds.  

Consumer-Like Experiences in Early Careers Recruitment 

This generation and mobile devices go hand-in-hand—literally. They’re accustomed to digital consumer brand experiences delivered through online platforms and mobile apps.  

Organizations that present tech-powered experiences throughout their recruitment process will get ahead with Gen Z. Consider incorporating:  

  • Mobile-enabled application processes with personalized and automated workflows 
  • Peer-driven recruitment content on socials 
  • Booking and confirming interviews via text message 
  • Tailored email campaigns and meaningful communications that provide hints and tips and explain timelines clearly 

However, just because they’re digital-first, doesn’t mean Gen Zers don’t appreciate a human touch, so personalization is a must-have with regular check-ins from human recruiters to ease anxiety and build connection.  

Authentic Storytelling 

Gen Z job seekers trust employees three times more than the company to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there. They want to hear from their peers, real people who can share their lived experiences in the program or at your organization. Focus on employee generated content rather than highly staged and polished marketing content. 

Featuring existing employees as brand ambassadors in early careers attraction content will help build trust and authenticity. Plus, it will help candidates see themselves in the role. 

Opportunity to Demonstrate Potential 

When it comes to early careers talent, their lack of experience makes it hard for employers to differentiate between candidates using résumés and CVs alone. Using a CV-blind approach, where only the critical requirements are assessed, helps to reduce unconscious bias and level the playing field. 

Emerging talent tends to struggle with competency-based questions and may have difficulty understanding how their studies could apply to a given role. And often, those candidates excelling in competency-based questions have utilized generative AI tools like Chat GPT or coaching from their careers service—which can result in an inauthentic assessment of the individual. 

Struggling to give evidence of a skill or behavior (i.e., competency questions, “tell me about a time when…”) when there is a lack of experience, doesn’t mean there is a lack of the potential. Leveraging realistic job previews, skills-based assessments or job simulations and situational-based interview questions gives emerging talent a feel for the job by showing them a snapshot of the real-life, day-to-day tasks of the role and the working environment. They are effective screening tools, giving candidates an opportunity to show how they might perform and demonstrate their potential. This helps level the playing field, and it can reduce early attrition by setting the right expectations from the start. 

Receiving & Giving Feedback 

What Gen Z lacks in experience, they make up for in enthusiasm. They’re keen to learn and grow and seek feedback in everything they do. While a candidate may or may not receive a job offer, feedback that they can use as they move forward in their career is the next-best outcome. 

Often, candidates may receive a generic email or—even worse—no communication at all. When they’ve invested a considerable amount of time and effort into an organization, no feedback can leave a bad taste. At every stage, taking the time to provide personalized feedback gives candidates actionable steps that they can take going forward in the process, or if they’ve been rejected, that they can use to apply to your company again in the future. If the candidate was a close match, the feedback you provide could help them become the ideal candidate in your next cohort. 

Additionally, with their consumer experience, Gen Z are keen to give feedback. In the absence of a mechanism for feedback, disgruntled candidates can take to social media and student forums to share their experiences and damage your employer brand. Instead, ask for feedback via a candidate experience survey like a Net Promoters Score (NPS) survey, which will allow you to measure your candidate experience and act on the feedback. In addition, monitor your social media platforms and forums and respond to demonstrate that you’re listening and taking it seriously. You may even consider offering candidates a means of contact via a dedicated email inbox and respond to any feedback you receive in a meaningful way. 

Leveraging RPO Expertise for Early Careers Recruitment  

Adapting your early careers recruitment to meet Gen Z’s expectations can be a complex undertaking, but you don’t have to go it alone. An experienced recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner can be instrumental in revolutionizing your approach. These specialists bring a wealth of knowledge about the latest recruitment trends, technologies and Gen Z preferences. An early careers talent solution can help you redesign your recruitment processes, craft compelling employer branding strategies and implement cutting-edge assessment techniques that resonate with emerging talent. Moreover, an RPO partner can provide the scalability and flexibility needed to handle fluctuating recruitment volumes, ensuring you’re always ready to capture top Gen Z talent.  

By leveraging an RPO provider’s expertise, you can quickly transform your early careers recruitment program into a powerhouse that not only attracts Gen Z candidates but also sets the stage for building a pipeline of talent that will drive your company’s future success. The organizations that adapt now will reap the rewards of a diverse, skilled and motivated workforce for years to come.

Navigating the Gen Z Era: Insights for Effective Early Careers Recruitment 

Posted on by akessler

Navigating the Gen Z Era: Insights for Effective Early Careers Recruitment 

The future of work isn’t coming—it’s already here, and it’s powered by Generation Z.

Born into a world of uncertainty, Gen Z isn’t just adapting—they’re rewriting the rules. These digital natives are bringing fresh perspectives, unmatched tech-fluency and a hunger for meaningful work. But they’re also demanding authenticity, flexibility and a real commitment to social impact.

Can your organization keep up?

From TikTok-worthy employer branding to creating a workplace that balances purpose with work-life harmony, this ebook, Navigating the Gen Z Era: Insights for Effective Early Careers Recruitment, is your roadmap to successfully recruiting and retaining the Gen Z powerhouse.

In this ebook, you’ll discover:

  • What makes Gen Z tick: Understand their unique values and career expectations
  • Why your outdated recruitment tactics are falling flat with this generation
  • Strategies to align your early careers program with Gen Z’s values and expectations

Download your copy today for expert tips for reimagining your early career recruitment program to become a Gen Z magnet.

TrueBlue’s PeopleScout Named a Global Leader in Everest Group’s 2024 Recruitment Process Outsourcing Services Peak Matrix® Assessment

Posted on by lloftus

TACOMA, Wash., June 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI), a leading provider of specialized workforce solutions, today announced that its global talent solutions brand, PeopleScout, has been named a global Leader in leading research firm Everest Group’s 2024 Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment for the sixth consecutive year.

“PeopleScout’s steady geographic expansion and expertise in hiring for a wide variety of roles across healthcare, retail, and manufacturing industries have enabled it to develop a comprehensive value proposition for RPO buyers,” said Arkadev “Arko” Basak, Partner, Everest Group. “Its recent launch of tech-driven agile and modularized RPO solutions, as well as continued investments in its talent advisory and proprietary Affinix technology platform, have helped it to maintain its position as a Leader in Everest Group’s Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2024 – Global.”

Everest Group classifies RPO service providers into three categories: Aspirants, Major Contenders and Leaders, the highest designation. The firm’s proprietary PEAK Matrix® characterizes Leaders as being ahead of the curve in “demonstrating strong vision and capability to support their clients” and at the forefront of “investing in developing emerging capabilities, including consulting, value-add services, skill-based support and generative AI.” Leaders are also selected for their multi-regional capabilities and significant global presence.

“We are honored to again receive a Leader distinction from Everest Group, which is a direct reflection of the continued dedication and best-in-class service our team delivers every day,” said Rick Betori, President of PeopleScout and EVP of TrueBlue. “As we forge stronger connections throughout the talent ecosystem with our best-fit technology, scalable offerings and unrivaled in-house talent advisory expertise, we remain unwavering in our commitment to building sustainable talent strategies that drive results and improve business outcomes for our clients.”

Everest Group’s assessment of PeopleScout on this year’s PEAK Matrix® highlighted the following key strengths:

  • PeopleScout has significant global capabilities, with proven expertise supporting large and mid-size enterprises across a variety of sectors, with solutions rooted in their partnership-led approach.
  • PeopleScout recently launched two agile RPO offerings in response to evolving buyer demands:
    • PeopleScout Accelerate™, a tech-enabled, quick implementation RPO solution.
    • PeopleScout Amplifiers™, a suite of modular talent solutions, providing customizable and stand-alone services for talent mapping, talent sourcing, Recruiter On-Demand™, candidate assessments, and onboarding and retention.
  • PeopleScout continues to invest in its proprietary and cloud-based technology platform Affinix™, which offers functionality across the talent acquisition spectrum, from candidate sourcing and matching to customized reporting and analytics.
  • PeopleScout’s talent advisory services include consulting and value-added services across employer branding, recruitment marketing strategy and activation, talent insights and workforce planning, DE&I strategy and candidate assessments.
  • By capitalizing on its contingent talent acquisition capabilities and technology, PeopleScout successfully delivers total talent solutions, and helps buyers with early careers hiring and high-volume recruitment.

Everest Group’s research is based on three key sources of information, updated annually: its database of approximately 6,400 RPO deals, the operational capability of the 50+ assessed RPO service providers, and buyer references interviews and ongoing buyer surveys and interactions. The analyses in the report are presented at two levels: overall market analysis and current market trends based on deal activity in the last five years.

To learn more about the RPO Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2024, visit the Everest Group website.

About PeopleScout 
PeopleScout, a TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) company, is a global talent solutions leader that provides unmatched scalability to meet the hiring needs of organizations of all sizes. It connects clients with top talent through Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Managed Service Provider (MSP), Total Workforce Solutions, and talent and technology advisory services. PeopleScout is helping talent leaders harness the power of data, drive decisions and exceed expectations through tech-charged solutions founded on machine learning and AI. PeopleScout’s legacy of service and partnership has led to consistent recognition as a leader by industry analysts. For more information, visit peoplescout.com.

About TrueBlue
TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) is a leading provider of specialized workforce solutions that help clients achieve business growth and improve productivity. In 2023, TrueBlue served 67,000 clients and connected approximately 464,000 people to work. Its PeopleReady segment offers on-demand, industrial staffing; PeopleScout offers recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and managed service provider (MSP) solutions to a wide variety of industries; and PeopleManagement offers contingent, on-site industrial staffing and commercial driver services. Learn more at trueblue.com.

Supporting Annual Graduate Recruitment for a Government Agency 

Posted on by akessler
Supporting Annual Graduate Recruitment for a Government Agency

Early Careers Recruitment

Supporting Annual Graduate Recruitment for a Government Agency

PeopleScout supports the assessment center for a UK government agency’s annual graduate recruitment campaign for policy advisors to ensure candidate quality and fairness.

3,500 + applications assessed
140 candidates supported in assessment centers
4 weeks of assessment centers completed

Situation 

This UK government agency runs an annual graduate recruitment campaign to hire quality early careers talent across their policy advisor team. They turned to PeopleScout to ensure this process remained consistent, fair and unbiased.  

Solution 

The PeopleScout talent assessment team supports the agency’s graduate recruitment program each year, continuously improving campaigns year-on-year.  

Prior to the assessment center, PeopleScout organizes assessors to sift written exercises. Successful candidates then complete a bespoke Situational Judgement Test, which we designed specifically to assess how candidates would respond in true-to-life scenarios that employees will encounter in their roles at the agency. This sifts out approximately 30% of applicants who would be unlikely to succeed at the assessment center. 

Candidate then complete the assessment center, for which we provide assessors. The assessment includes a variety of exercises like role plays, interviews and structured policy conversations. These are freshly designed by the client each year, and PeopleScout supports by reviewing the materials for consistency and best practice.  

Our experienced assessment team provides an end-of-campaign analysis, adverse impact analysis and recommendations for continual improvement. For example, off the back of these recommendations, we worked collaboratively with our client to host the assessment centres through part of our Affinix technology suite to create a smoother candidate and assessor experience in their virtual assessment centers.  

Results 

For this annual graduate recruitment campaign, PeopleScout assessed 3,697 applications, with 140 people completing the assessment center over 4 weeks. Ultimately, 53 candidates went on to work for the agency.  

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    UK Government Agency
  • INDUSTRY
    Government & Public Sector
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory, Affinix
  • ANNUAL HIRES
    50+ graduate policy advisors
  • ABOUT THE CLIENT
    This UK government agency employs over 3,000 civil servants.
Let’s Connect

Creating a Values-Based Interview Framework for More Equitable Hiring

Posted on by akessler
Creating a Values-Based Interview Framework for More Equitable Hiring

Talent Consutling

Creating a Values-Based Interview Framework for More Equitable Hiring

This UK airport wanted to create a more standardised process for interviews based on their organisational values. As their long-time RPO partner, PeopleScout’s Assessment Design team created a values-based interview framework to support hiring for six levels of seniority from entry level to director.

Situation 

The airport’s talent acquisition leaders noticed that different teams across their organisation were conducting different types of interviews. They wanted to create a standardised process for interviews, which both measured potential and ensured fairness. They also wanted to embed their company values into their assessment process to secure talent who are in alignment with their organisational culture. 

This company turned to their RPO partner, PeopleScout, to transform their values into a multi-level interview framework.  

Solution 

Our Assessment Design team got to work conducting desk research into the client’s existing values and created a template which was populated throughout the project. Consulting with the client in an iterative way, the designers set clear definitions for the values and created a collection of questions for each value. The client’s team reviewed a variety of options for interview question styles and decided what worked for them.  

These questions also corresponded to six levels of seniority—from entry level to director—totalling 36 banks of question. The question banks were organised in such a way that interviewers at the organisation could easily pick and mix questions for their needs. We also delivered scoring criteria to ensure fairness for all candidates.  

Results 

In the recruitment process, the new values-based interview framework has standardised and streamlined the interview stage. Now, our client is building the questions into an internal tech platform to make the interview process even easier for hiring managers.  

Beyond recruiting, the new framework has applications across the entire organisation to help employees understand how the organisation’s values are manifested in their role. This has catalysed a cultural change within the organisation as employees at all levels are thinking more about how they embody this company’s values in their daily work.  

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    UK Airport
  • INDUSTRY
    Travel & Tourism
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT THE CLIENT
    This UK airport has nearly 75,000 employees, making it one of the country’s largest single-site employers.
Let’s Connect

[On-Demand] Hype or Happening? What Our Data Tells Us About AI in Recruiting

Posted on by akessler

[On-Demand] Hype or Happening? What Our Data Tells Us About AI in Recruiting

 

We are bombarded with hype about the disruptive power of Generative AI, or Gen AI, on recruitment, including doom-laden, worst-case scenario predictions and claims that our existing talent assessment methods are already obsolete.

It is hard to make sense of all this to come to informed decisions about how we should respond to the new era of Gen AI. Much of what we see and hear is based on opinions, and the research reported focuses on the potential to disrupt rather than revealing the reality of what is actually happening right now.

At PeopleScout, we have responded to this confusion and lack of useful evidence by doing our own research. We wanted to look for evidence of real use cases and impact of Gen AI on job changers and live assessments—and what we found shines a different light on how candidates are using Gen AI in the real world.

In this webinar, we:

  • Debunk common myths and hype about Gen AI in recruiting.
  • Present real-world data and use cases of Gen AI’s impact on job seekers and assessments.
  • Offer actionable insights to help you navigate the evolving landscape of recruitment technology.

 

Changing Perceptions Across Asia with a New Employer Brand for a Beverage Manufacturer 

Posted on by akessler
Changing Perceptions Across Asia with a New Employer Brand for a Beverage Manufacturer

Employer Branding in Asia

Changing Perceptions Across Asia with a New Employer Brand for a Beverage Manufacturer

A global beverage manufacturer and distributor engaged PeopleScout for a localized EVP and employer brand to boost their reputation amongst emerging talent in several markets across Asia.

Situation 

This global beverage manufacturer and distributor engaged in an internal strategic review of their corporate vision and purpose, which led to looking at their corporate brand and strategy for the future. The company’s people and culture team delved into how to ensure everyone in the organization is aligned with the strategy and how they could contribute to the business’s future success. Having developed a global employer value proposition (EVP) to support the strategy, a critical part of the roll out was to ensure it resonated with the specific cultural nuances of the APAC labor market, spanning such diverse countries as China, Japan, South Korea, India and Vietnam.  

The client engaged PeopleScout’s Talent Advisory team to localize their overarching EVP and employer brand to make it relevant for the candidate audience in each APAC market. It needed to be flexible in order to help them navigate cultural differences, target specific talent segments and address local recruiting challenges. 

The majority of the organization’s recruitment in APAC is for early careers and graduate talent, with roles in sales, marketing, product development, technology, consumer insights and more. There were five main challenges at play: 

  1. Emerging talent viewed working for this organization as a short-term option, not as a destination for a long-term career. Misperceptions about consumer goods brands in the region meant that people saw the beverage manufacturer as a place where early careers talent thrives, rather than where all talent thrives.
  2. In some Asian markets, there’s a lot of pressure on early careers employees to choose the right career. The consumer goods industry is not seen as a prestigious career path. 
  3. Cultural sensitivities around alcoholic beverages—which this client specializes in—created an additional challenge to overcome in some of their Asian markets. 
  4. The beverage manufacturer owns a portfolio of multiple well-known consumer brands and different brands are stronger in different markets. But, the client’s corporate employer brand itself is not well known. They needed to find a way to capitalize on their consumer brands to create recognition for their employer brand. 
  5. The beverage manufacturer was struggling to recruit for emerging roles in fields such as digital and data science, as their brand was not associated with these types of jobs. 

We set out to create a new employer brand that would help the client better manage candidate expectations, inject authenticity into their messaging and solidify what they had to offer emerging talent in APAC. 

Solution 

We started with a comprehensive exploration of data from multiple sources including competitive analysis, industry benchmarking, employer review sites, campus surveys, employee engagement surveys and exit interviews. Through the rigorous analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, we identified gaps and opportunities for each market.  

We also conducted visionary interviews with leaders in APAC to understand how they were executing the corporate strategy locally and how local culture in their various markets would impact this vision. This helped us to understand the aspiration for the employee experience and the behaviors that the business needed to achieve success. 

Then, we spoke to employees across key talent groups and demographics through a series of focus groups to understand their real working experience. From conducting previous projects in Asia, we knew that we had to be creative in the ways we gathered insights to respect cultural norms while still gathering good intel. We came away with a clear picture of what attracted and motivated talent across career stages and cultures as well as what could lead to attrition. 

With this in hand, we built an EVP framework that laid out the “give and get” for employees in each market. The framework was designed to leverage the corporate EVP whilst being flexible enough to resonate in each country. Certain messages could be dialed up or down to match the attractors and motivators for talent in each country. We rigorously tested the framework with employees in each market to stretch and test each brand pillar and ensure the EVP was both robust and future-proof.  

The next stage was to bring the employer brand to life with a universal creative platform for the APAC business tied to the manufacturer’s consumer brands in markets where the group brand was unknown.  

To create sharable content for the client’s careers site and social media channels, we interviewed more employees, gathering stories to boost authenticity through both written and video content.   

Outputs 

As a result of the employer brand engagement, PeopleScout produced the following outputs for the beverage manufacturer: 

  • A robust, validated EVP framework with clear promises for talent in each Asian market. 
  • Insights into key attractors and motivators for each talent segment to inform their future sourcing strategy. 
  • An employer brand and messaging framework to inform talent attraction campaigns. 
  • Localized recruitment marketing toolkit for each country to activate their new employer brand for various languages and cultures.  
  • A roadmap for people and culture initiatives to drive employee engagement and retention. 
  • Recruitment marketing collateral to support campus recruitment in China for the next academic year.  

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Global beverage manufacturer
  • INDUSTRY
    Consumer Goods
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Talent Advisory
  • LOCATIONS
    China, Japan, South Korea, India and Vietnam
Let’s Connect

TrueBlue’s PeopleScout Named a Leader in All Categories of NelsonHall’s 2024 NEAT Vendor Evaluation for Next Generation RPO

Posted on by lloftus

Global talent solutions provider identified as a global leader for the sixth time in a row

Chicago – May 20, 2024 – TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI), a leading provider of specialized workforce solutions, today announced that its global talent solutions brand, PeopleScout, has been named a leader, the highest rating, in every category of NelsonHall’s global 2024 NEAT Vendor Evaluation for RPO. PeopleScout was recognized for its transformational business strategies, broad range of RPO solutions, deep Talent Advisory expertise and best-fit technology solutions.

“PeopleScout’s positioning as a Leader within NelsonHall’s Next Generation RPO NEAT reflects its innovative technology and process solution designs helping its clients compete in the evolving employment landscape, said Jeanine Crane-Thompson, Principal HR Analyst, NelsonHall. “The company’s recently introduced Amplifiers modular recruitment solutions and turnkey RPO solution, PeopleScout Accelerate, offer flexibility and scalability to meet clients’ immediate and longer-term requirements.”

NelsonHall’s NEAT Vendor Evaluation provides companies around the world with a comprehensive assessment of vendors’ offerings and capabilities. The RPO evaluation compares providers across a range of criteria and business situations to identify the best performing vendors overall, with a specific focus on candidate experience, technology innovation, service innovation, multi-country delivery and talent acquisition transformation.

“We are honored to be recognized by NelsonHall for our scalable offerings, industry-leading technology and unrivaled in-house talent advisory expertise,” said Rick Betori, President of PeopleScout and EVP of TrueBlue. “These differentiators drive tangible value for our clients and elevate their connection to top talent as we help them build sustainable talent strategies to achieve their short- and long-term workforce goals.”

Highlights from NelsonHall’s evaluation of PeopleScout on the 2024 NEAT Vendor Evaluation for Next Generation RPO include:

  • A business transformation strategy that applies learnings from market trends and client behavior to develop near- and longer-term product and service offerings, such as its recently released Amplifiers™ and Accelerate™ solutions
  • The broad range of RPO and talent solutions, including those offered across the TrueBlue family of brands, that provide comprehensive solutions and synergistic business development opportunities
  • Deep expertise in its Talent Advisory services, including employer branding, recruitment marketing, talent insights, DE&I consulting, candidate assessment services and TA strategy consulting
  • PeopleScout’s proprietary technology platform, Affinix™, and established third-party partnerships. that provide best-fit talent technology solutions
  • Pragmatic business development strategies that target established markets and identify expansion opportunities in recession-resistant industries

A Leader designation on NelsonHall’s NEAT vendor evaluation is based on a combination of analyst assessments and client feedback. Client interviews focus on the vendor’s proven ability to deliver immediate benefits and demonstrated suitability to meet future requirements.

Learn more by viewing NelsonHall’s 2024 PeopleScout Vendor Profile.

About NelsonHall

NelsonHall is the leading global analyst firm dedicated to helping organizations understand the ‘art of the possible’ in digital operations transformation. With analysts in the U.S., U.K., Continental Europe, and India, NelsonHall provides buy-side organizations with detailed, critical information on markets and vendors (including NEAT assessments) that helps them make fast and highly informed sourcing decisions. And for vendors, NelsonHall provides deep knowledge of market dynamics and user requirements to help them hone their go-to-market strategies. NelsonHall’s analysis is based on rigorous, all-original research, and is widely respected for the quality and depth of its insight.

About PeopleScout

PeopleScout, a TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) company, is a global talent solutions leader that provides unmatched scalability to meet the hiring needs of organizations of all sizes. It connects clients with top talent through Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Managed Service Provider (MSP), Total Workforce Solutions, and talent and technology advisory services. PeopleScout is helping talent leaders harness the power of data, drive decisions and exceed expectations through tech-charged solutions founded on machine learning and AI. PeopleScout’s legacy of service and partnership has led to consistent recognition as a leader by industry analysts. For more information, visit www.peoplescout.com.

About TrueBlue

TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) is a leading provider of specialized workforce solutions that help clients achieve business growth and improve productivity. In 2023, TrueBlue served 67,000 clients and connected approximately 464,000 people to work. Its PeopleReady segment offers on-demand, industrial staffing; PeopleManagement offers contingent, on-site industrial staffing and commercial driver services; and PeopleScout offers recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and managed service provider (MSP) solutions to a wide variety of industries. Learn more at www.trueblue.com. 

Press Contact
Taylor Winchell
Senior Manager, External Communications
+1 253-680-8291
pr@trueblue.com

Skills-Based Hiring: Could It Be the Solution to Your Recruitment Challenges?

Posted on by akessler

Recruiting the right talent has always been a tough nut to crack for any company. And it’s becoming an even bigger challenge. Low unemployment rates, shifting workforce preferences and skills gaps make recruiting harder than ever. However, a proven solution has emerged that can expand access to talent and meet diversity goals while fueling business performance—skills-based hiring.  

The goal of skills-based hiring is to match candidates not based solely on degrees or past job titles, but rather on their current, demonstrated skills aligned with role requirements. It aims to judge applicants equitably on what they can do rather than what’s on their résumé or CV. This approach opens your talent pool to a wider range of qualified candidates who may have been overlooked using traditional hiring methods. 

Let’s explore what skills-based hiring entails, why more employers are embracing it and how you can get started. 

What is Skills-Based Hiring? 

As the name implies, skills-based hiring focuses on a candidate’s demonstrated skills and competencies rather than traditional qualifications like education, years of experience or work history. The emphasis is on relevant skills rather than “paper” credentials. For example, instead of requiring a college degree, a skills-based employer might list must-have abilities like sales, communication, analytical thinking, etc.  

The hiring process itself focuses on skills fit. Interviews and talent assessments gauge how a candidate’s skillset maps to a role’s requirements. In this way, skills-based hiring removes barriers for underrepresented groups and instead gauges whether someone can actually perform well according to the role’s core skills. The goal is to judge candidates objectively and find the best match for the job.  

Skills in the Workplace 

So, what skills should companies actually evaluate with skills-based hiring? Skills in the workplace are made up of three key components: 

  1. Hard Skills / Technical Skills: These are the expertise areas like programming languages (i.e., python, Java), data analysis, financial modeling, and other role-specific knowledge. While they’re crucial for many jobs, they actually make up a small fraction of the overall skills picture. 
  2. Soft Skills: Often undervalued, soft skills in the workplace, like problem-solving, emotional intelligence, communication and critical thinking are the grease that allows hard skills to operate smoothly. For most roles outside of niche specialties, these human skills make up the vast majority of what’s needed for success. 
  3. Values Alignment and Organizational Fit: Less about executing the day-to-day work, this is about whether someone’s personality, mindset and motivations mesh with the company culture and values. It’s about determining if the candidate embodies the attitudes and behaviors you want to see in the role and at your organization. 

Benefits of a Skills-First Approach: From Engagement to Productivity 

The potential benefits of skills-based hiring are plentiful. It can expand your talent pool, increase diversity by reducing bias toward pedigree over performance, improve internal mobility, and better align employees to roles they’ll thrive in.  

Organizations that embrace skills-based recruiting experience: 

Not only does skills-based hiring boost performance and quality of hire, but it also enhances your employer brand, accelerates ramp up and improves retention. 

3 Steps to Get Started with Skills-Based Hiring Today 

So, how can companies start becoming more skills-based in their hiring today? The reality is that nearly one in two HR leaders admit to a lack of understanding around skills-based best practices.  

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing, enterprise-wide overhaul. Here are three steps to start putting skills-based hiring in focus: 

1. Understand the roles that you have. 

The first step in skills-based hiring is to break down the roles you’re looking to fill into the specific skills required for success. Start with one role or a set of roles. What hard skills (technical abilities) and soft skills (personal attributes) drive top performance in each position? Collaborate with your high performers to identify these key competencies and create detailed skills profiles for each role. These profiles should be action-oriented, specific, and avoid vague or subjective requirements. 

With skills profiles in hand, you can craft job descriptions that communicate the essential abilities candidates need upfront. This transparency not only attracts better-matched applicants but also sets clear expectations from the start. Consider removing degree requirements if they’re not absolutely necessary, as LinkedIn data shows that job ads listing skills tend to receive more applicants. 

2. Understand people.  

In a skills-based approach, you’ll evaluate candidates based on their personal skills profiles – their demonstrated hard and soft skills relevant to the role. Implement validated, data-driven assessments like coding tests, writing samples, or Excel modeling exercises to consistently measure these abilities during the hiring process. Grade candidate responses objectively against your predefined skill criteria on a scale. This data-driven approach helps minimize unconscious bias.  

3. Align roles with people.  

Structure your interviews to probe candidates’ proficiency in key skills through situational judgment questions and opportunities to demonstrate their competencies. Skills-based interviews, combined with detailed skills profiles for both roles and candidates, will help you make smarter, more informed talent decisions. Hire skilled individuals who match the role requirements, identify reskilling needs for existing employees, or reject candidates who don’t meet the necessary competencies.  

Skills-Based Hiring & RPO: Goodbye Credentials. Hello Skills. 

Skills-based hiring is still an emerging practice, but it offers companies an intriguing way to modernize talent acquisition. By focusing on what people can actually do instead of just their past experiences and credentials, you may uncover hidden gems and build higher-performing teams.  

While making the shift to skills-based hiring practices takes time and effort, partnering with a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider can accelerate your transition to building a future-fit workforce through this approach. An RPO partner offers the strategic guidance and operational expertise to embed skills at the core of your talent practices. They can help you carefully define and communicate role-specific skills and design fair and consistent talent assessments. 

With the support of an RPO partner like PeopleScout, you can embed fairness and future-readiness into your talent strategies, building a more skilled, capable workforce prepared to drive your organization’s success. 

PeopleScout Company Overview

Posted on by akessler

PeopleScout Company Overview

Global talent solutions providing unmatched scalability to meet the professional, specialist, volume and contingent hiring needs of organizations of all sizes and sectors.

Download this fact sheet to learn more.

Download Fact Sheet

Learn more about PeopleScout’s award-winning talent solutions.

Learn More

Dig Into More Talent Insights

Ultimate Recruitment Process Outsourcing Toolkit
Toolkit

Ultimate Recruitment Process Outsourcing Toolkit

Our complete six-piece toolkit gives you the essential information on how RPO can boost your recruitment outcomes.

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Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Buyer’s Guide
Buyer’s Guide

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Buyer’s Guide

Check out this in-depth exploration of RPO and how it can help you achieve your recruitment goals.

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Global Hiring and Labor Market Trends Affecting Recruitment in APAC 
Article

Global Hiring and Labor Market Trends Affecting Recruitment in APAC 

Check out these labor market trends in APAC and their effect on talent acquisition in the region.

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