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Hiring & recruiting

AI Fluency

Here's the hiring state-of-play in 2026. An AI writes the resume. An AI screens the resume. An AI preps the candidate for the interview, and increasingly, an AI conducts the first round too. And somewhere in there, a human still has to make a decision based on something real. This isn't a fringe trend. McKinsey's The State of AI 2025 finds nearly nine in ten organizations now use AI regularly, and half use it across three or more business functions. Hiring sits on both sides of that statistic: t

Skills-based hiring is the best defense against AI

With diversity initiatives under fire from political parties and corporates alike, it‘s easy to forget the hard stats.  For example, companies with gender and ethnic diversity in leadership outperform less diverse companies financially by almost 40% [1]. You might be convinced that building diverse teams is the fair and profitable approach, but pure intentions don‘t solve hiring problems. Screening candidates fairly once applications are in is one part of it. But you can’t build a truly diverse 

Diversity sourcing: 7 tips for an unbeatable hiring strategy

Companies claim they want experienced talent, yet they often reject candidates for being too experienced.  It’s a quiet contradiction, and it’s everywhere. Behind the “overqualified” label are assumptions about salary, turnover, or fit – often without a real conversation. The result? Great people get overlooked, and critical roles stay open. At TestGorilla, we’re here to unpack the overqualified paradox, show when the concern is real (and when it’s just bias), and explore how leading teams use s

The “overqualified” paradox: Unpacking what’s holding back your hiring

The first rung of the career ladder is disappearing. Not because young people stopped applying, but because the rung itself is being sawn off from two directions at once. Automation is eating the routine work that junior roles were built on, and the signals employers once used to spot promise have stopped meaning anything. That leaves a hard question for anyone hiring in 2026: if the bottom of the ladder is gone, how does new talent step up? This piece looks at what’s actually happening to entry

Why entry-level jobs are vanishing

Blog thumbnail Why inferred skills are gaining ground

According to our 2025 State of Skills-Based Hiring Report, 63% of employers say it’s harder to find great talent than it was last year. A shortage of skilled talent in the market and growing recruitment layoffs mean companies are working twice as hard to find good candidates and relying on hacks – like inferred skills – to snag them as fast as possible.  Done right, this hack can be a smart way to hire. But when inferred skills are used incorrectly, they can backfire and lead to poor selection d

Why inferred skills are gaining ground in modern hiring

Portrait of a professional on a softly blurred city street, illustrating the TestGorilla article "Your 90-day roadmap for implementing skills-based hiring"

"But how do we actually do this?" We often hear this question after companies see the compelling ROI of skills-based hiring. You're convinced by the numbers, energized by the potential, but now comes the real challenge: implementation. You don't need to reinvent your entire hiring process overnight. Companies that successfully transition to skills-based hiring typically follow a methodical approach that builds momentum through early wins. Let's break down exactly how you and your teams can move 

Your 90-day roadmap for implementing skills-based hiring

White-collar vs. blue-collar recruitment featured image

Recruitment isn’t a one-size-fits-all process, especially when it comes to white-collar vs. blue-collar roles. The strategies that land top software engineers won't always work for hiring a carpenter, for instance.  But which strategies should you use to land the best talent for your blue- and white-collar roles? And how, exactly, are the two types of recruitment different? We break it all down for you in this guide.  Below, we explore the unique challenges of recruiting for white-collar and blu

White-collar vs. blue-collar recruitment: Key differences for hiring

Skills-based hiring

Can skills-based hiring solve tech’s diversity problem? 

“Experience matters. We hire old people. (And young people, too).” [1] This bold 2021 job ad by tech startup RelevantDB quickly drew attention to tech’s long-standing diversity problem when it comes to hiring older workers. However, tech’s diversity issue isn’t just about the lack of older workers. Data shows that the industry also tends to hire fewer women, Black and Latinx workers, and individuals with disabilities.  Despite recent contractions in the job market, tech is expected to expand mor

Can skills-based hiring solve tech’s diversity problem? The data says yes.

Skills-based hiring reduces mis-hires for 90% of employers featured image

Despite an influx of labor from the tech layoffs, a cooling labor market, and access to more global talent than ever, 51% of employers are having difficulty finding top talent in 2024.  What’s worse – even when you think you’ve found the right person for the job, there’s still a good chance it won’t work out. One study even showed that nearly 75% of recruiters admit to having hired the wrong person for a vacancy – wasting time, resources, and money. [1] Luckily, things are changing. We recently 

Skills-based hiring reduces mis-hires for 90% of employers. Here’s why.

Why do younger generations prefer skills-based hiring

According to a recent survey for our 2024 State of Skills-Based Hiring report, 68% of employees prefer a skills-based hiring process. For 25 to 34-year-olds, this number goes up to 82%.  The question that naturally follows is – what makes skills-based hiring so appealing to younger workers? In this article, we take a look at millennial and Gen Z workers and what drives their preference for skills-centric recruitment processes. 

Why do younger generations prefer skills-based hiring?

Why is the federal government prioritizing skills-based hiring featured image

The federal government is the largest employer in the US, with close to 3 million workers around the country. [1]  Despite this, the government’s approach to hiring hasn’t changed significantly in decades – until now. Over the last few years, a clear shift to skills-based hiring has emerged. This shift challenges the “paper ceiling” – a metaphor for the unofficial barriers that prevent skilled individuals without formal degrees from accessing certain career opportunities.  So, what does this shi

Why is the federal government prioritizing skills-based hiring?

9 key negotiation skills (and how to assess them)

At TestGorilla, we believe the future of hiring is skills-based. But that’s only the beginning. Organizations wanting to future-proof their workforces shouldn’t stop at skills-based hiring. They must also place skills at the center of building and managing their workforces. This approach creates a culture of continuous learning, adaptability, and innovation throughout your organization, benefiting both the business and your employees.  In this article, we make the case for an approach to hiring 

What is a skills-based workforce? The key to future-proofing your business

30 medical assistant interview questions and sample answers featured image

In a recent Gartner survey of HR managers, 47% admitted they didn’t know what skills gaps existed in their current workforce. [1]  This finding is surprising given this information's crucial role in effective recruitment, strategic workforce management, and succession planning. It’s even more astonishing considering there’s a dedicated tool designed to help organizations understand their workforce’s skills: skills ontologies.  Some organizations dismiss skills ontologies as overly complex, acade

Why you should use a skills ontology: The foundation of strategic, skills-based hiring

States across the US are implementing a skills-based approach to hiring and rewriting the rules to traditional hiring practices.  Instead of evaluating candidates on their education and background, they’re going in search of diverse talent who have the skills needed for the job. This opens up opportunities to people who might miss out because they’ve been skilled through alternative routes (STARs) or don’t have a degree. However, not all states are created equal in their approaches to hiring and

Skills-based hiring is the latest US hiring trend – and these 5 states are getting it right

Talent assessment

One of the main objectives most successful professionals pursue is to be as efficient as possible at their jobs. For someone in a hiring role, this means hiring and retaining the right people for your company while spending as little time and resources as possible on the task.  To do that, you’re going to need more than blind effort and sheer luck. Even your best efforts can turn out to be fruitless if they’re not organized.  Optimizing your hiring process is easy when you implement a talent ass

What is a talent assessment framework – and why do you need one?

Portrait of a professional on a softly blurred city street, illustrating the TestGorilla article "How to build a skills-based organization: A step-by-step guide to success"

Still relying on highly defined roles and fancy job titles? While these may have been the gold standard in the past, they’re outdated and damaging in today’s fast-moving world.  The smartest companies know they must stay agile – they’re ditching the old playbook and transitioning to what’s known as a skills-based organization. Skills-based organizations are reshaping the future of work. I believe they are the future – and you could seriously lose out if you don't pay attention.  Not sure what al

How to build a skills-based organization: A step-by-step guide to success

Human resources

Soft skills are attributes and traits that are not job-specific. These are broad, non-technical skills that can be applied to many different roles. A few examples of soft skills include effective communication, adaptability, teamwork, active listening, and time management. Soft skills are near-universal in their applicability. An employee with any of these soft skills on top of their hard skills is more effective than an employee with hard skills alone. This guide contains our lists of the most 

A list of the soft skills HR professionals and job seekers should know

If you’re interested in anything skills-based hiring-related – whether it’s rate of adoption, employee attitudes, or the benefits and impact of this hiring practice – then you’re in exactly the right place.  We collected responses from over 2,000 employers and employees to bring you The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2025. Now, we’re compiling data collected in 2024 and 2025 to bring you 52 key skills-based hiring statistics.

52 key skills-based hiring statistics

At a time when great talent comes at a significant premium employers are realizing that they need tools to assess candidates’ skills more quickly and reliably.  Unfortunately, resumes are prone to bias, difficult to evaluate objectively, and often lead to inaccurate hiring decisions. That's why many organizations are now choosing to hire people based on their skills rather their education or experience.  By making the switch to skills-based hiring employers can drastically reduce their time and 

 The data on why employers are hiring people based on skills

Portrait of a professional in a softly blurred office, illustrating the TestGorilla article "What is skills-based hiring?"

Skills-based hiring is a hiring process where evidence of candidates' skills, rather than other information such as their prior experience or where they were educated, is used to make hiring decisions. As such, employers set specific skill requirements and then measure for these skills. According to TestGorilla's 2024 research, 90% of employers using skills-based hiring reduce mis-hires, 91% improve retention, and 90% improve workplace diversity. We’re all about skills-based hiring at TestGorill

What is skills-based hiring?

With increasing demands for skills-based hiring from employers, employees, and job-seekers, it’s important to understand the crucial role that recruitment tests play in the process.  Recruitment tests focus on candidates’ provable skills and abilities instead of inaccurate, bias-prone strategies like degree and resume requirements.  But what’s test recruitment and how can it benefit your organization?  Below, we’ll explore what recruitment tests are, why you should use them, and the seven types 

7 recruitment tests to include in your campaign 

Skills-based hiring provides a fairer way to assess candidates and foster more diverse, inclusive, and high-performing teams.  However, its impact is limited if practices are only half implemented.  Without tracking and measuring the success of your skills-based hiring process, you’ll struggle to optimize your talent acquisition strategy fully. You may still be under-representing particular groups, adding inefficiencies into your hiring process, or missing opportunities to improve the employee/c

Measuring the success of skills-based hiring: Metrics and best practices

It’s well-known that STEM industries – industries under the umbrella of science, technology, engineering, and math – are some of the least diverse industries out there. Despite that the skills needed for a software engineer are not inherent to any race, gender, or other demographic categories, 93% of professional developers are men, more than 40% are White, and more than 98% do not have a disability.[1]  Given that more than 90% of organizations that switched to skills-based hiring in 2022 saw a

What’s causing inequality in STEM, and is skills-based hiring the solution?

Increasingly more HR professionals are feeling pressure from events like the pandemic and the Great Discontent. Organizations need top talent, and top talent is scarce. A simple solution to this growing problem is out there: talent sharing. Talent sharing is when a company shares employee skills across departments and teams, or possibly with a separate organization. It’s an agile strategy that enables hiring managers to find the skills they need, and it also gives new career opportunities to emp

The relationship between skills-based hiring and talent sharing

When employees feel like they belong at work and are an integral part of a close-knit team, the results are far-reaching: Their job performance increases by 56%, their turnover reduces by 50%, and they take 75% fewer sick days.[1] Belonging is also cited as a leading driver of employee engagement, and 91% of employees who feel they belong are engaged at work as opposed to 20% of those who don’t.[2]  However, creating a culture of belonging at work involves more than offering a friendly welcome t

How skills-based hiring can build a culture of belonging

“You’re overqualified.” “We’re looking for a youthful digital native.” The hiring world is obsessed with age. After decades of linking stereotypes to certain ages, it’s become second nature to assume that younger workers are inexperienced or older workers can’t learn complicated programming. It’s about time we stopped thinking of people as either “too young” or “too old” for a position and started looking at individual skills instead. Is the candidate able to get the job done? Yes? Then hire the

How skills-based hiring ends ageism and our obsession with age

An ideal candidate profile (ICP) is a common recruiting tactic used by hiring managers. These documents include the ideal requirements for open roles, such as skills, work experience, education, motivation, and career goals. But a few of those points can be problematic. When you make assumptions about a candidate’s “required” experience and education, it narrows your talent pool – or even worse, it leads to a bad hire. So what about a skills-based ideal candidate profile? Developing an ICP that 

 How to create an ideal candidate profile – the skills-based way

Skills-based hiring has proven to be revolutionary for companies in countries around the world, ensuring they can locate, hire, and develop talented workers. But not all countries have fully adopted skills-based hiring, if at all.  The consequences of relying on traditional hiring practices include failing to fill important vacancies with skilled workers, missing out on or driving away diverse talent, improperly upskilling, and burning out existing employees.  For example, the European Union’s t

How skills-based hiring is a game-changer for Europe and the UK

The healthcare industry is one of the largest in the US. The market size was valued at $359.2bn in 2022 and is projected to reach $781.5bn by 2030.[1] This massive industry is currently facing a massive talent gap. Thousands of healthcare workers are leaving the industry, and too few are coming in. This means the healthcare sector needs to attract talent, stay competitive, improve working conditions, and retain top employees. It’s certainly a tall order, but there’s a solid solution to each of t

Skills-based hiring in the healthcare industry

Innovation drives organizations forward, leading to better discoveries and improved financial performance. It’s a core priority, and every business is looking for ways to nurture it. But “innovation” isn’t exactly a measurable metric like turnover or retention. As important as it is, companies struggle to nail down concrete ways to boost innovation. What does innovation look like in a skills-based organization? Does skills-based hiring have an impact on innovative thinking? We might have cracked

Does skills-based hiring have an impact on innovation and innovative thinking?

Sometimes the benefits of skills-based hiring sound too good to be true – lower cost-to-hire for a higher quality employee who stays longer? By switching to skills-based hiring, thousands of organizations save recruiting costs through higher-quality hires, faster time-to-hire, and longer retention. We’re here to tell you that skills-based hiring isn’t too good to be true, but it isn’t magic either. Like any new practice, it needs some consideration to properly incorporate into your processes. Ma

How does skills-based hiring affect your recruiting budget?

The average Black or Hispanic household in the United States earns about half as much as the average White household.[1] This phenomenon, known as the racial wealth gap, embodies racial inequality in the United States, threatening the economic security of the families it affects and the economy as a whole.  The racial wealth gap doesn’t just appear in wage disparities between different racial groups. It also appears in the hiring process.  Most notably, traditional hiring practices (those emphas

How skills-based hiring can help close the racial wealth gap 

A job application is a pretty standard form to fill out. They’re a way to quickly list out achievements, skills, and competencies – and an equally quick way to tell employers your name, age, gender, and race. If this sounds like an opportunity to open the door to unconscious bias to you, you’re right. Anonymous job applications sidestep this issue by removing certain personal details from the process, instead focusing on whether or not the candidate has the right skills, like solid computer lite

Does anonymous hiring fit into a skills-based approach?

Mis-hires and turnover are essential metrics for any HR professional. Hiring an unsuitable candidate after months of searching is detrimental to your company, and losing a current employee can be just as painful. How can we manage these tricky metrics? This article discusses the detriment of mis-hires and turnover and the part that holistic, skills-based hiring can play in reducing both.  2 in 3 employers say using skills tests in their hiring process has reduced the number of mis-hires in 2025.

How skills-based hiring leads to fewer mis-hires and combats employee churn

Pre-employment testing is a valuable tool that accurately predicts a candidate’s job performance.  Unfortunately, some candidates don’t like it. That doesn’t mean your job applicants are lazy or have commitment issues.  Using time-consuming pre-employment assessments that are not carefully crafted, inclusive, or relevant to the job does not respect the candidates’ feelings or time.  This also robs them of the chance to show their skills, which is the main reason for using skills assessments.  Do

Good candidates aren’t completing your assignments: Find out why

Everyone knows the urgent need to get women into STEM – that is, jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math.  However, not everyone knows the other side of that equation: getting men into HEAL. “HEAL” is a term coined by Richard Reeves, a psychologist, to describe jobs in health, education, administration, and literacy – roles in which men are drastically under-represented. Reeves defines HEAL jobs as the opposite of STEM roles. They are more focused on people than products or processes,

Male inequality in health, education, administration, and literacy (HEAL) jobs: Is skills-based hiring the answer?

Unconscious bias (also known as implicit bias) has been well-documented and discussed in academic circles for the past few decades. But few have been as transformative and influential when it comes to informing the general public of such phenomena as Malcolm Gladwell, a prolific writer and journalist. His best-selling books (Blink, Talking to Strangers, Outliers, The Tipping Point) take a collective look at human cognition’s strangest and most interesting aspects, from our surprisingly poor abil

What Malcolm Gladwell teaches us about unconscious bias and skills-based hiring

We know how this headline sounds, but no, this blog post isn’t about helping Dua Lipa start a new career as a warehouse supervisor. The term “STAR” actually stands for “Skilled Through Alternative Routes” and refers to workers who have gained valuable skills outside the now-expected path of a college education. STARs make up 50% of the American workforce, and yet the traditional hiring techniques used by many employers – including resume review and degree requirements – exclude them from roles w

How skills-based hiring helps STARs tear down the paper ceiling

An unstoppable change in our ways of working is well underway. It involves self-organizing teams who can proficiently complete work without supervision or bureaucracy. These teams work in short cycles and constantly respond to data about their customer’s needs. They are innovative, they experiment, and they pivot in response to changes in available technologies and market conditions. Fundamentally, they are Agile.  Since its birth in 200, midwifed by a group of 17 rebellious software developers 

Skills-based hiring is the key to hiring Agile teams – here’s why

Hiring for a startup is not the same thing as hiring for an enterprise. As a startup founder or hiring manager, you need to move quickly. According to Glassdoor, the average hiring process takes 24 days in the US. But this average is dragged down by roles like waiter and delivery driver that are filled much more quickly.[1] You’re looking at double that time frame for highly-skilled roles and maybe triple for executive hires. That’s an average of around two months for most critical startup roles

What skills based hiring really means in the context of startups

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This handbook provides actionable insights, use cases, data, and tools to help you implement skills-based hiring for optimal success

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The skills-based hiring handbook

A comprehensive guide packed with detailed strategies, timelines, and best practices — to help you build a seamless onboarding plan.

How to elevate employee onboarding

A comprehensive guide with in-depth comparisons, key features, and pricing details to help you choose the best talent assessment platform.

Top talent assessment platforms comparison guide - carousel image

Top talent assessment platforms: A detailed guide

This in-depth guide includes tools, metrics, and a step-by-step plan for tracking and boosting your recruitment ROI.

The blueprint for boosting your recruitment ROI cover image

The blueprint for boosting your recruitment ROI

A step-by-step blueprint that will help you maximize the benefits of skills-based hiring from faster time-to-hire to improved employee retention.

Skills-based hiring checklist cover image

Download checklist

The skills-based hiring checklist

With our onboarding email templates, you'll reduce first-day jitters, boost confidence, and create a seamless experience for your new hires.

Download templates

Essential onboarding email templates

 Get all the essentials of HR in one place! This cheat sheet covers KPIs, roles, talent acquisition, compliance, performance management, and more to boost your HR expertise.

Download cheat sheet

The HR cheat sheet

Onboarding employees can be a challenge. This checklist provides detailed best practices broken down by days, weeks, and months after joining.

Employee onboarding checklist

Track all the critical calculations that contribute to your recruitment process and find out how to optimize them with this cheat sheet.

Key hiring metrics cheat sheet cover image

Key hiring metrics cheat sheet

In a hiring world where bots screen bots, this one-pager shows how to refocus AI on surfacing real, job-ready people. Learn how to blend skills data, human insight, and smart automation to build a fairer, faster hiring process.

Download one-pager

Ending the AI arms race in hiring

Understand why hiring can sometimes feel like a matchmaking dilemma and learn how skills-based hiring can help you find "the one" for lasting hires.

Watch now

It's not you, it's your hiring process

Discover the science behind building high-performing teams by learning how to identify candidates who truly fit your company.

The dream job equation

Join us for an in-depth walkthrough of the 2024 Skills-Based Hiring Report. Our experts unpacked key trends, surprising insights, and why skills-based hiring is here and here to stay

 The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2024

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