How Skills-First Hiring Improves Recruitment Accuracy and Reduces Turnover

At Join Vars, one of our core hiring principles is skills-first hiring, selecting candidates not solely based on past job titles or formal degrees, but on their ability to grow, adapt, and contribute meaningfully to the team over time. This approach values long-term potential, even if it requires some additional training or ramp-up time.

Across the hiring and recruitment landscape, skills-first hiring is gaining momentum as employers realize that the most capable candidates may not always have a specific education or prior job title but still possess the skills needed to excel.

By turning traditional evaluation methods on their head, skills-first hiring can help organizations uncover exceptional talent, boost productivity, and enhance retention rates.

In this article, we’ll explore what skills-first hiring truly means, why, and how you should integrate it into your recruitment process.

What Is “Skills-First” Hiring?

Skills-first hiring is a recruitment approach that prioritizes a candidate’s abilities and competencies over traditional criteria like formal education or years of experience in a similar role. Instead of relying solely on degrees or specific job titles, employers focus on whether an applicant can actually perform the tasks required for the position.

Of course, certain professions will always require formal qualifications for safety and compliance reasons; nobody would hire a nurse without the proper education and licensing. But in many industries, strict degree requirements can be unnecessary, especially when candidates have gained valuable expertise through hands-on work, self-study, or other nontraditional pathways. By insisting on a degree, companies risk overlooking talented individuals who may not have had access to higher education.

Statistics reveal this gap: about 70% of job postings list a degree as a requirement, yet only around 42% of white adults have one. The numbers are even lower for Black adults (28%) and Hispanic adults (21%).

Skills-first hiring also challenges the outdated notion that only candidates with identical job titles or industry backgrounds can succeed in a role. Many skills are transferable across professions. For example, a retail sales associate may possess the interpersonal skills to shine as a hotel concierge or the persuasive communication abilities to excel in marketing. The goal is to recognize high-performers, regardless of their career history, and explore how their abilities can bring value to your team in new ways.

Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills 

When implementing a skills-first hiring approach, it’s essential to understand the distinction between the types of skills candidates offer.

Hard skills are typically tied to a person’s professional experience. These are measurable, teachable abilities such as changing a car’s oil, managing inventory, or using a point-of-sale system.

Soft skills, on the other hand, are less tangible and harder to teach. They reflect personal qualities like patience, self-motivation, adaptability, and conflict resolution.

Jenny Leman, President of CareerPlug, advises that “employers should prioritize soft skills during hiring and be prepared to train employees on hard skills while on the job.” She explains with an example: “For a customer-facing role, I would prefer to hire someone who naturally builds rapport, earns customer trust, and demonstrates strong self-motivation, then teach them the technical aspects, rather than someone who can perform the tasks flawlessly from day one but lacks warmth, engagement, and the drive to deliver an exceptional customer experience.”

Why Embrace a Skills-First Hiring Strategy?

The concept of skills-first hiring is steadily gaining momentum in the recruitment world, and for good reason. Recent data from LinkedIn shows that 40% of organizations used a skills-first approach to find and evaluate candidates in the past year, while an impressive 75% of recruiters now prioritize skills over traditional qualifications when sourcing talent.

Shifting to this method, however, can feel like a significant change, especially if your hiring process has long revolved around resumes, degrees, and past job titles. It’s natural to wonder whether focusing on skills could result in bringing on employees who lack sufficient experience or formal credentials.

The truth is, those concerns are largely unfounded. A skills-first approach doesn’t lower the bar; it redefines it in a way that often leads to better results. By evaluating candidates based on what they can actually do rather than solely on their academic background or years of experience, you open the door to a much broader and more diverse talent pool.

Not only can this strategy help you discover capable individuals who may have been overlooked under a traditional hiring model, but it can also enhance your overall workforce quality. You gain the ability to match people’s proven competencies directly with the demands of the role, leading to stronger performance, higher engagement, and improved retention rates.

Simply put, skills-first hiring isn’t about taking risks with unqualified candidates; it’s about uncovering hidden talent, creating fairer opportunities, and building a team that can truly deliver.

Expand Your Applicant Pool

Today’s job market is more competitive than ever, with 77% of employers reporting difficulty in filling open positions. Finding the right candidate becomes even more challenging when your applicant pool is small. That’s where a skills-first hiring approach can make a real difference, as it allows you to consider a much wider range of qualified candidates.

Imagine you’re hiring for a customer service role. If you limit your search only to applicants who have previously worked in customer service or within your exact industry, you’re automatically restricting yourself to a very narrow pool of talent. On the other hand, individuals with backgrounds in restaurants, hospitality, or retail may already possess the communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills required to excel in the position.

By broadening your criteria to include candidates with transferable skills, you could potentially double, triple, or even quadruple your applicant pool. Removing rigid requirements such as specific degrees, an exact number of years in a role, or identical industry experience encourages people from diverse professional paths to apply, giving you more options and increasing your chances of finding the perfect fit faster.

Reduce Hiring Bias and Boost Workplace Diversity

Traditional hiring practices that overemphasize degree requirements often exclude large segments of the workforce, particularly individuals from historically marginalized communities who have had less access to higher education. This unintentional barrier not only narrows your talent pool but also reinforces inequality.

A skills-first hiring process promotes a more objective and fair evaluation of candidates. Instead of filtering applicants based on degrees or previous job titles, you focus on proven abilities and potential. This approach can help reduce unconscious bias, those subtle, automatic judgments we make, such as favoring a candidate simply because they share our alma mater.

When you evaluate candidates based on competencies rather than credentials, you naturally open the door to underrepresented talent. A more diverse workforce brings a wealth of perspectives, fosters creativity, and drives innovation. Teams with varied backgrounds tend to solve problems more effectively, adapt quickly to change, and deliver stronger business results.

Enhance Employee Retention

Hiring based on skills and potential rather than strictly on past job titles or academic credentials sends a powerful message: you value growth and long-term contribution over a perfect resume. This mindset helps you identify high-potential employees who can adapt, learn, and thrive in new roles, even if they haven’t worked in that exact capacity before.

At Join Vars, we believe that hiring for growth potential builds loyalty and cultivates a more motivated workforce. When employees feel that they’ve been given an opportunity to develop a career, not just fill a position, they’re more engaged and committed to the organization.

Investing in people this way creates a positive cycle: employees who feel supported are more likely to stay, contribute at a higher level, and become ambassadors for your brand. As Join Vars founder and CEO Clint Smith puts it:

“Giving the right person a chance can help you earn employees for life. There’s something special about being the first organization to give someone a shot and make them feel like they have a career. Over the years, the people who have been the most loyal were often those I took a chance on early, maybe they didn’t have the exact qualifications on paper, but I hired them for their potential.”

By focusing on skills-first hiring, you not only find strong talent more quickly but also foster a diverse, engaged, and long-lasting team.

How to Build a Skills-First Hiring Process

Adopting a skills-first hiring approach might seem like a leap of faith, but it can still deliver high-quality candidates and exceptional outcomes. By making a few intentional adjustments, you can successfully weave this strategy into your recruitment process and attract the right talent.

Highlight Soft Skills in Your Job Descriptions

LinkedIn research shows that job postings that focus on skills, not just job titles, tend to attract more applicants and have a stronger view-to-application rate.

When you shift the focus from strict role labels to the skills required, more candidates can envision themselves in the role and assess whether it’s a good fit. Even if they haven’t held an identical position before, they may still recognize that they possess the qualities you need.

One job seeker shared: “I love finding job postings that match my skill set. It’s exciting when companies say they’ll consider experience in place of formal degrees.”

When outlining qualifications, you should still list your essential hard skills, like specific certifications or software experience, but it’s equally important to call out the soft skills that will make someone excel in the role. Examples include:

• Creativity

• Adaptability

• Teamwork

• Problem-solving

• Time management

  
  

Expand Your Reach Beyond Traditional Applicant Sources 

At Join Vars, we believe it’s time to move beyond the idea that job boards are always the go-to for finding exceptional candidates. In fact, our research consistently shows that alternative, custom sourcing channels can be just as effective, if not more so, at connecting employers with high-quality talent.

Studies reveal that applicants from custom sources are over four times more likely to get hired compared to those who apply through job boards. Since people develop skills through a variety of non-traditional paths, tapping into diverse recruitment channels can help you focus on true capabilities rather than just conventional qualifications.

Take Slack, for example. This workplace communication platform has made strides in diversity hiring by sourcing talent from unconventional avenues, such as women-only coding boot camps. The result? Increased representation of women and minorities in a field where they are historically underrepresented.

You can adopt a similar approach by exploring candidates from skills-based programs, coding boot camps, or online certification courses. Networking events, industry conferences, and even community gatherings can also introduce you to exceptional prospects. Many organizations have also found success in overlooked platforms like local job boards, Facebook employment groups, chamber of commerce postings, and even customer referral campaigns.

Rethink How You Evaluate Candidates 

Skills-based assessments are one of the most reliable ways to ensure candidates truly possess the capabilities they claim on their resumes. These evaluations allow you to measure both hard skills and soft traits, giving you a clearer picture of a person’s potential fit for the role.

With an applicant tracking system, like the one offered by Join Vars, you can streamline this process using built-in assessment tools. From math and verbal reasoning to personality profiling, these evaluations break down skill sets into measurable categories, helping you make better hiring decisions with confidence.

Create a Structured Interview Process 

A structured interview process allows you to evaluate all candidates using the same set of objective criteria. This not only helps reduce hiring bias but also creates a more consistent and positive candidate experience, ultimately leading to stronger hiring decisions.

When you prioritize skills in your hiring approach, structured interviews can reveal a candidate’s abilities, motivation, and long-term potential. Instead of only matching previous job titles or identical experience, dig deeper into how they approach challenges, solve problems, and adapt to new environments.

Behavioral interview questions are especially useful for uncovering these qualities. For example:

• Describe a time when you knew less than others about a task or subject. How did you catch up?

• Share an instance where you exceeded your manager’s expectations to complete a project.

• Tell me about a challenging customer interaction and how you resolved it.

Motivational questions can help reveal mindset and drive:

• When did you take on new responsibilities in your role, and what prompted the change?

• Describe a time you failed at something. How did you handle it?

• When was the last time you received feedback, and how did you respond?

Skills-Based Hiring: Are You Ready to Implement It?

 Skills-first hiring is becoming a preferred approach for many organizations, and for good reason. By focusing on demonstrated capabilities rather than strictly on degrees or years of experience, businesses can expand their talent pool, evaluate applicants more accurately, minimize bias, and improve employee retention.

Making small but intentional adjustments to your hiring process can open doors to candidates who might otherwise be overlooked. By evaluating talent based on skills, you not only give deserving candidates an opportunity but also strengthen your workforce for the long term.