By Joanna Preston, Chairperson of the Board and Head of Young Talent Practice at FNB
In recent years, the landscape of hiring has undergone a significant transformation. Traditionally, employers have placed heavy emphasis on academic qualifications and degrees as the primary indicators of a candidate’s potential. However, a growing trend towards skills-based hiring is reshaping how companies evaluate and select talent, particularly for entry-level roles and graduate programs. This shift prioritizes practical abilities and real-world experience over formal education, offering a more inclusive and effective approach to recruitment.
This trend has been successfully implemented in the fields of technology and management consulting, with companies such as Google, Apple, EY and IBM focusing on candidates’ problem-solving abilities, coding skills and potential, rather than on academic qualifications. This approach certainly has its advantages: by removing degree requirements, employers can access a much broader talent pool, including those that have gained skills through non-traditional pathways such as online courses, boot camps, or self-learning. The focus on skills supports a closer match to a specific role, also allowing for greater adaptability to new technologies – by hiring candidates with up-to-the-minute skill sets. In South Africa, particularly, this approach greatly contributes to the promotion of a more diverse and inclusive workforce. By removing the requirement for a specific degree or qualification, employers can lower the barriers to entry for many talented individuals who may not have had access to higher education.
As with any significant shift in strategy or process, hiring for skills comes with risks and implementation challenges. A successful skills-based hiring strategy requires some key foundations and provisions to be implemented. The core requirement is a robust competency framework, clearly defining the skills required for each role, which in turn must feed into a well-functioning assessment toolkit and process to accurately measure the candidates’ abilities. The assessment and selection process in this approach must also be more extensive than a traditional approach, and should include a combination of practical tests, simulations, and behavioural interviews to evaluate candidates’ skills. Tools like coding challenges, case studies, and work samples can provide valuable insights into candidates’ abilities. An organisational commitment to lifelong learning as well as a willingness to invest the time and money required to train candidates on any skill gaps, is also a critical requirement.
This shift in thinking offers great opportunities for the South African context and especially young talent who are first-time job seekers. Over the course of my career, I have seen the success of alternative sourcing strategies such as: hiring engineers in banking to non–degreed talent coming from skills incubators like WeThinkCode and being more successful on the job than traditionally trained graduates. Sharing success stories is the best way to overcome any scepticism of HR or hiring managers with respect to a ‘new’ way of identifying and selecting talent. But, before you rush out and scrap all traditional hiring practices; consider that even innovative and valuable practices such as these, are not a one-size fits-all solution to sourcing skills in a complex organisational context! Whether in technology or the fast-changing world of data analytics, formal qualifications still have their place, but it is in broadening our horizons to consider talent outside of these frameworks, that we can truly unlock potential for our organisations, our candidates and South Africa as a whole.