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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Tell me if this hurts: How the gender pain gap affects your employees and business

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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From recruitment to retention: A skills-based approach to the employee lifecycle

From recruitment to retention: A skills-based approach to the employee lifecycle

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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How to keep AI's gender biases out of hiring

How to keep AI's gender biases out of hiring

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Why sexual harassment in the workplace should be seen as a DE&I issue

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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How skills-first onboarding benefits your employees and organization

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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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How to prevent your women leaders falling off the glass cliff

Crystal clear? How to prevent your women leaders from falling off the glass cliff

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

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

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Don’t touch my hair: How hair bias affects Black women in the workplace

Don’t touch my hair: How hair bias affects Black women in the workplace

Hair discrimination remains a widespread issue for Black women in the workplace with a 2023 CROWN Workplace Research Study finding that Black women’s hair is 2.5x more likely to be perceived as unprofessional.[1] Sixty-six percent of Black women would change their hair for a job interview, and over 20% of Black women aged 25-34 have been sent home from work because of their hair. In this article, we look at the societal causes and detrimental effects of hair discrimination on Black women in the

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How microaggressions impact workers’ mental health – and how to stamp them out

How microaggressions impact workers’ mental health – and how to stamp them out

Microaggressions are subtle but insidious forms of discrimination. They can inflict profound harm on workers' wellbeing and contribute to burnout, reduced job satisfaction, and resignations.  Exclusionary behavior like microaggressions is often aimed at marginalized groups. It might target a person’s race, gender, sexuality, parental status, socioeconomic background, mental health, etc., and tends to be inflicted on underrepresented groups.  Seventy-three percent (73%) of people that identify as

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How culture committees help build more diverse teams

How culture committees help build more diverse teams

“If I define her, I limit her,” said Argentinian actor Chino Darín of his girlfriend, something that’s also true about a company's culture. How can you describe your organization without reducing it to a few common employee characteristics?  Companies need to pay close attention to cultivating the right culture so that their employees feel safe to speak their minds and motivated to achieve better results.[1] You want your workers to live shared values, but also to add their unique perspectives a

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How skills-based assessments can help teams overcome imposter syndrome

How skills-based assessments can help teams overcome imposter syndrome

What comes to mind when you hear the name Albert Einstein? Physics, the theory of relativity, massive intelligence, that out-there hair? For sure, “impostor” isn’t one of the words that cross your mind. However, Einstein himself thought he was an “involuntary swindler” and believed the appraisal of his work was exaggerated.[1] You’d never think someone who discovered the relationship between space and time would question his right to be thought of as a genius, but that’s what imposter syndrome i

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7 ways to close the funding gap for women-led startups

7 ways to close the funding gap for women-led startups

For women and feminine-presenting people in the startup world, it can be easy to get discouraged about turning a brilliant idea into a long-term business due to the difficulties many encounter in securing funding.  This has nothing to do with their ability to innovate, run a company, or launch a successful business, and everything to do with the funding gap for women-led startups.  While the number of deals made by teams with a woman founder hovers around 5-6%, women-only startups receive only 1

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