Skills-based hiring

What is skills-based hiring? Why is it on the rise, and what are the best practices for adopting it in your organization? Here’s everything you need to know about this revolutionary new approach to recruitment.

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Skills-based hiring is the best way to recruit

Our data shows extraordinary outcomes for employers and candidates

88%

of employers say skills-based hiring reduces mis-hires

82%

of companies report a reduction in total cost-of-hire

86%

of employees say skills-based hiring can help them land their dream job

76%

of skills-based hires are happy in their role

The State of Skills-Based Hiring Report 2022 (TestGorilla's annual thought leadership report)

The state of skills-based hiring in 2023

Recruitment is changing fast. Over the past year we’ve seen the red-hot candidate market give way to recessionary fears, and the rise of AI-based tools that promise a brand-new world of work. As businesses reshape their workforces to deal with these challenges, skills-based hiring has emerged as the preferred tool to find and secure talent. In the world's only annual report on skills-based hiring, we deep dive into the revolutionary recruitment trend to find out how employers are leveraging this approach, how it’s affecting candidate experience in the current job market, and what the adoption of skills-based hiring practices means for diversity and inclusion efforts across organizations.

Our 2023 report will be launched early October 2023 - watch this space!

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What is skills-based hiring?

Looking to make faster, more accurate, and higher quality recruitment decisions? 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. Enter skills-based hiring. Read on to find out how this new approach to recruitment is driving managers to ditch resumes and expand their applicant pools.

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Why skills-based hiring?

Our data shows that 76% of employers are ready to make the switch to skills-based hiring. Find out why skills-based hiring is on the rise and the wide-ranging benefits it can bring to your business.

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Who is using skill-based hiring?

Skills-based hiring has quickly become a global trend helping reshape recruitment practices across many regions and industries. From the United States to Singapore, recruiters are embracing skills-based hiring to attract and keep top global talent. Reasons for its popularity differ across regions. Some use it to streamline high-volume hiring, while others are using it build fairer, more diverse teams. Read on to find out who is using skills-based hiring and how they will benefit.

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How to implement skills-based hiring

Skills-based hiring is a broad hiring approach that covers everything from job descriptions and talent assessments, to structured interviews and work samples. Find out how to implement skills-based hiring for your organization in the best possible way.

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Skills-based hiring resources

Skills-based hiring is a growing trend that shows no signs of abating, with 53.4% of respondents believing it will be the dominant hiring method in the future. Stay ahead of the curve by reading all the insights from our annual report, and explore our range of resources to help you make better skills-based hiring decisions.

The State of Skills-Based Hiring Report 2022 (TestGorilla's annual thought leadership report)

Report

TestGorilla's annual report: The State of Skills Based Hiring

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Creating a culture of neurodiversity

Glossary

Read our free skills-based hiring glossary

Skills-based hiring FAQ

Latest posts on skills-based hiring

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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. We’re all about skills-based hiring at TestGorilla, and the rest of the world is finally catching up. Skills-based hiring has had lots of press of late, with big names such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, CNB

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You too? How to combat sexual harassment in the workplace

It’s more common than you think – more than one in five people across the globe have experienced some form of workplace misconduct in their lifetime, and an estimated 205 million employees have been a victim of sexual harassment or violence.[1] While you’d like to believe you’ve created a safe and fair workplace, sexual harassment happens, oftentimes going unreported.[2]  From hospitality and health care to retail and finance, no industry is immune to unwanted behaviors in the workplace.  Though

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Thirty percent of people quit a new job within the first three months.[1] This is a huge waste of hiring resources, especially as it can cost $4,683-$28,329 to fill those gaps in your workforce.[2]  This means a new employee’s initial experience with your company is crucial for retention.  Effective onboarding programs can make a big difference to employee productivity and their sense of belonging. Yet many companies still cram onboarding into a few days or weeks and focus only on the practical

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Why sexual harassment in the workplace is a DE&I issue

No matter how well you think your organization deals with sexual misconduct, measures like regular training and strict policies may not be enough to prevent it. Anything from inappropriate workplace relationships to crude jokes can create a hostile work environment where your employees don’t feel comfortable, which is why it’s essential to start at the root of the issue – the inclusiveness of your company.  This is because sexual harassment is ultimately a DE&I issue, with these incidents dispro

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Generative language models like ChatGPT have quickly become an integral part of our working lives, with 43% of workers having already used an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for work. As you’d expect, this includes HR departments and automating parts of the hiring process.[1]  However, since AI tools are fed with publicly available information, their results can sometimes perpetuate biases and discriminatory attitudes – particularly when it comes to gender.  For example, a user was experimenti

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Forty-eight percent of people believe there is a "gap" in the identification and treatment of pain between genders. Often, this is due to women’s pain not being taken seriously.[1] This “gender pain gap” can negatively impact women and feminine-presenting employee’s well-being, confidence, attendance, productivity, and career opportunities. For Black women, the issue is further compounded by the racial healthcare gap and stereotypes that Black people feel less pain.[2]  In this piece, we’ll look

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Creating a diverse and inclusive workforce isn’t just a box-checking exercise or something to feel morally proud of. Diverse teams come up with better ideas to solve customers’ problems and make companies more innovative, productive, and profitable.[1]  The value businesses see in diversity is evidenced in the 91% of Fortune 500 companies that have now adopted nondiscrimination policies with gender identity protection.[2] However, achieving true diversity and inclusion (D&I) goes beyond recruiti

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In 2012, Yahoo appointed Marissa Mayer as its new chief executive, a move which, at the time, seemed like a step forward for women in leadership.  This was, of course, before it became clear that Yahoo was doomed to lose the battle against Google.   The upshot? Mayer was left teetering at the edge of a “glass cliff” with an impossible job to do and no parachute.  The "glass cliff" refers to the phenomenon of appointing women like Mayer to leadership positions during times of crisis or difficulty

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6 ways skills based hiring can help you identify hidden gems in your organization

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