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It’s No Surprise That “Skills-Based” Hiring Has Not Worked (www.forbes.com)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by redfox@infosec.pub to c/technology@lemmy.world

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This article outlines an opinion that organizations either tried skills based hiring and reverted to degree required hiring because it was warranted, or they didn't adapt their process in spite of executive vision.

Since this article is non industry specific, what are your observations or opinions of the technology sector? What about the general business sector?

Should first world employees of businesses be required to obtain degrees if they reasonably expect a business related job?

Do college experiences and academic rigor reveal higher achieving employees?

Is undergraduate education a minimum standard for a more enlightened society? Or a way to hold separation between classes of people and status?

Is a masters degree the new way to differentiate yourself where the undergrad degree was before?

Edit: multiple typos, I guess that's proof that I should have done more college 😄

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[–] redfox@infosec.pub 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Has the author ever worked anywhere?

I wonder if having a degree is a hard requirement for journalism and writing/communication and that's what the author's world perspective is based on?

When coworkers sit around the lunch table and complain/vent about the state of the world, do you imagine that journalist complain about a lack of higher education, so when they see any evidence that threatens the model of college degrees (which = debt), they jump on it as proof of their own path?

while it’s tradition to require a degree, it’s literally a check box

This is a very good challenge to the requirement. If it's just a check box (that you have A degree) and not a very specific one, does it diminish the credibility of the requirement?

Do people like the probationary period idea? It sounds functional and practical to me.

[–] lqdrchrd@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I currently work at a business that uses a similar method to the probationary period, and I hate it. It’s definitely one of those things that sounds good on paper, but in practice I would love to move away from.

We use a proprietary system in my field, and train a couple of members of each department to be able to submit stuff into it (think Concur / NetSuite). It takes about three months to become proficient enough that I don’t have some form of issue with everything you submit. This means I can spend months training someone, just for them to be let go and the next person roll in.

Training people is expensive in both cash for the business and the time of those around them. Hiring correctly once would make my life a lot easier.

[–] redfox@infosec.pub 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Training people is expensive in both cash for the business and the time of those around them

You're definitely supported by an enormous amount of evidence in this.

In my current job, we have a small group of employees with specialties in sciences, medical, hazardous materials, IT, threat/plume modeling, and running daily activities. They go to so much training in their first two years, they're gone all the time, and then they are still almost worthless for another year due to lack of real-world knowledge they couldn't get from these special schools.

When we hire the wrong people, it's a huge problem in costs, lost time, and then it makes finding replacements that much harder and shorts the organization longer as well.

Finding the right people who are a good fit is hard.

[–] jmp242@sopuli.xyz 4 points 9 months ago

Training people is expensive in both cash for the business and the time of those around them. Hiring correctly once would make my life a lot easier.

I agree that training people is expensive - I'm just not convinced that any other system than the probationary one works. That is to say, there's sufficient cases of people getting past whatever screening plan the companies have and yet cannot do the job. Depending on the company, once you're permanent, it can be very hard and every expensive to fire you - especially in some countries.

I'm not suggesting that you should take anyone off the street and give them a probationary period. I'm saying if your position needs a skills assessment, I don't think there's a functional one other than a few months of actually doing the job. Too many other systems are easily gamed, or are easily set up to fail people inappropriately too.