Employers Say Fewer Jobs Require Degrees. What is Their Plan to Make Up The Difference?

by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations, Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.^®

In an article in HR Dive by Carolyn Crist entitled, “Fewer Job Posts Require Degrees, Though Hiring Hasn’t Caught Up,” the author explained what appears to be a growing shift in hiring practices by employers. Or maybe not.

She explains, “While the intention to hire people without degrees is seemingly growing, hiring practices remain influenced by traditional requirements… Talent acquisition pros appear to be changing their habits, but hiring has not yet caught up to the push to end degree requirements, LinkedIn data says.” Furthermore, few companies feel effective at skill validation.

Hiring based on skills is more difficult than hiring by degree, by far. Hiring by skill requires an accurate understanding of the required prerequisite skills for the job and an accurate way to measure a candidate’s skill base relative to that job classification. It requires “content valid” or “job relevant” hiring criteria that represents today’s version of the job classification, not yesterday’s or yesteryear’s job criteria – something most employers lack. Many employer’s job descriptions alone are grossly behind today’s technological state of operation, and what they have is guaranteed to continually degrade with each passing year. For some, it might even be so extreme that it may produce an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission violation waiting to be discovered.

Crist further explains, “Last year, paid LinkedIn Recruiter users searched for candidates by their skills about five times more often than they searched by degrees…Degreeless hiring is growing, but the percentage of hires made often falls short of the job post rate.” So what could be the hurdle?

For one, as mentioned, sufficient job or content valid hiring criteria is typically lacking. Second, most employer’s worker development strategies haven’t kept up with the times. Unlike 20-30 years ago when an employer could get by with a “Bob, this is Jim…why not show him around” approach to on-the-job training, today’s jobs are more complex, undocumented and too broad to not deliberately train workers to master the tasks of the job classification for which the employer should expect them to be responsible. And when hiring continues as if more bodies is the answer, while there aren’t enough “subject matter experts” nor a system of worker development in place, productivity is sure to decline and desperate decisions to seek cheaper labor(with the same challenges or more) elsewhere may be forced upon the CEO by anxious shareholders.

Another possibility for employers waiving a college degree is the unfounded hope that Artificial Intelligence will dial down the job requirements so much that traditional knowledge and skills acquired in college studies are not expected to be needed. Good luck with that.

Hiring by skills is the right way for employers to go for those positions for which there are no academic programs close enough to make a difference, but only if the employer has made the necessary preparations to make the hire successful, a structured on-the-job training program. After all, even if someone is an experienced machinist, they have never run the new employer’s equipment to the employer’s specifications nor made the employer’s products in the employer’s environment. Pre-hire skills is a good foundation, however, waiting for the employer to build upon.

Check out Proactive Technologies’ structured on-the-job training system approach to see how it might work at your firm, your family of facilities or your region. Contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can be followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues.