Finding and hiring the right people (and placing them in the right roles) is critical to business success. While this is not a controversial idea, many organisations are still using outdated Talent Acquisition (TA) processes that prioritise previous job titles, years of experience, or educational attainment rather than the actual (or potential) capabilities of the candidate.

As the VP and Group Head of Recruitment at National Grid, Darren Peiris, recently said on The Talent Blueprint podcast, “Recruitment is the most important thing we are going to do as an organisation. It can help change the culture, the people, the performance, and what we deliver. So I always say to people, if you’re going to prioritise something, prioritise recruitment.”

In 2024, prioritising recruitment means rethinking how we identify, engage and attract talent into a business. And, in the increasingly competitive talent market, the businesses that have established a skills-based talent acquisition process will have a competitive advantage.

Technological change, geoeconomic trends and the green transition pose great risks to people’s livelihoods and are fundamentally transforming labour markets. The Future of Jobs Report 2023 indicates that by 2027, 43 per cent of work tasks will be automated.

Over 1 billion jobs are projected to be radically transformed by technology by 2030, leading to the need for a global reskilling revolution. Urgent investment in human capital is therefore needed to create a fairer world by ensuring people are given the chance to fulfil their potential and thrive.

Our approach to skilled-based hiring

LeapIn is a next-gen skills-based talent intelligence platform that transforms how we hire, retain, and develop talent. Its headquarters is based in Singapore.

Also Read: Hiring for scale: The evolution of your startup’s customer operations team

LeapIn uses an algorithm that combines behavioural science to help companies evaluate the soft skills and capability of talent and make more informed decisions for hiring and talent development. LeapIn’s technology analyses emotional data and people’s language patterns to discover valuable insights about the type of personality traits and soft skills the respondent possesses. LeapIn‘s skilled-based hiring stands out because of its friction-free usability and validated reliability.

Skills-based hiring, in short, is a talent acquisition approach that evaluates candidates based on their unique and individual abilities and skills, as opposed to assessing them based on more “traditional” measures, like previous job titles, educational attainment, or other more subjective factors.

This method is gaining traction as it provides a more objective and effective way to evaluate candidates — and ensure they have the necessary capabilities to succeed in a given role. It gives companies an added repertoire towards assessing candidates and guards against the random biases and quirks that can creep into the hiring process.

Global enterprises have already incorporated LeapIn AI. In one case study, over 20,000 candidates were employed by a large manufacturing company in Germany. A total of 8,000 candidates were evaluated using LeapIn’s AI interview, after which the top-ranking candidates, 200 applicants, received a job offer.

Company recruiters and business managers provided feedback to candidates based on their interviews. This feedback aligns with the AI score of 96 per cent. Such tests have been performed with several companies in the FMCG, finance and retail industries to similar effect.

Korn Ferry’s research shows that by the year 2030, demand for skilled workers will outstrip supply, which is expected to cost companies (in the US alone) US$1.7 trillion. The competition for talent with highly in-demand skills will become even fiercer, and the skills needed to succeed in many roles are changing quickly. Companies realise that they need to deconstruct jobs into the tasks they comprise and the skills required to do them in order to find agility and speed in a challenging talent landscape.

Competition for skills is getting more intense, and today’s employees have a deep desire to learn and grow. Seventy-six per cent of employees say they are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

Leaders must help people thrive at all levels by strengthening their “power skills.” Functional skills like coding are vital, but power skills—such as critical thinking, communication, problem-solving, and creativity—open new doors, especially for upward mobility into leadership roles.

Also Read: Are you a human resource?

Companies with a skills intelligence system will develop higher-performing teams, a better employee experience, and more efficiency, productivity, and engagement. The system is the breakthrough: human-centred technology that transforms the way companies hire, reward, and grow their people. Unlike tools available today, it will remove the bias, friction, and errors found in traditional approaches.

Companies can:

Be smarter and more agile, hiring the right people based on the skills they have versus their degrees or job history
Use skills intelligence to identify high-potential employees based on insights, not anecdotes
Create dynamic career paths for each employee by surfacing new opportunities for skills development, roles, and experiences within the company
Level the playing field for talent with rich, diverse backgrounds and capabilities

The power of AI

Organisations need HR tech tools powered by AI to help them in each of these areas. Tools that help identify and define the skills you already have internally, the skills gaps you need to fill, and quickly find the candidates who have those skills — whether they are already within your organisation or are brand new hires. Skills-based transformation doesn’t (and shouldn’t) just apply to the sourcing and hiring process — it affects internal talent mobility, talent management, learning and development, and workforce planning.

The best use of technology is not just to make existing tasks easier, faster, and cheaper but to enable a new methodology from the ground up. In recent years, the global workforce has been changing with the emergence of the gig economy, which is a flexible, on-demand workforce.

In today’s so-called fourth industrial revolution standing still is akin to moving backward. LeapIn has the tools to help companies take a step into the future, while also bringing the human back into human resources.

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