Elaine Construction

How About Shifting from Credentials to Capability? I would like to think I know a bit about hiring employees. With more than 30 years in “people strategies,” “talent acquisition,” “employment,” “recruiting,” and “HR,” I have filled more than 2,500 positions at every level across a variety of industries, including public utilities, biotech, medical devices, and construction.

Have I always gotten it right? I would say at least 80% of the time.

My success has come from hard work, instinct, sound judgment, and an understanding that hiring is about more than simply matching a resume to a job description.

For many years, recruiting relied on very specific criteria: a four-year degree, an exact jobtitle match, a linear career path, certain schools, or experience with certain companies. It was a tried-and-true way of matching candidates to roles. More recently, applicant tracking systems (ATS) have reinforced this approach by screening candidates based on these same qualifiers and eliminating applicants who don’t make the cut.

For HR professionals expanding the talent pipeline and lessening the impact of talent shortages, I believe it is time for a major do-over.

The Problem with Traditional Resume Screening

When we focus primarily on university degrees, previous job titles, and the companies someone has worked for, we are really looking at a candidate’s past opportunities and history.

Those things can be useful, but they don’t necessarily tell us what someone is capable of doing. They may not reveal adaptability, execution, problem-solving ability, or willingness to learn. If we want to build a more resilient, agile, and diverse workforce, we should start shifting the focus from where someone learned to what they can actually do.

In a tight labor market, the last thing employers do is accidentally eliminate highly capable employees simply because they don’t fit a traditional, cookiecutter definition of talent. Think about the skills that can be found in people such as self-taught coders, gamers, military veterans, and career changers. Their backgrounds may not always look like the traditional candidate profile, but they may have exactly the capabilities an organization needs.

Case in Point

Many years ago, when I was recruiting at a large Boston public utility, we had a major hiring need in our service repair department. Internal retirements were creating vacancies, and we were having difficulty competing for workers with the right skills. Plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians, and others with similar skills could earn more in public-sector jobs elsewhere than they could at the utility.

We simply couldn’t fill the positions, and it had become a major roadblock for the organization.

In those days, we didn’t have ATS. We read applications and resumes one by one. As I sat in my office working through dozens of applicants, one candidate caught my attention. He had recently been working as a technician at a major manufacturing company. But as I looked more closely at his background, I discovered that he had come to the U.S. from South Vietnam several years earlier as a refugee. In his former country, he had been an attorney for several years. After arriving in the U.S., however, he had to completely retool himself in order to support his family. He had learned an entirely new trade, one that was completely unrelated to his previous career.

I remember thinking about how difficult it must have been to start over. More importantly, I thought about what his experience demonstrated: adaptability, flexibility, drive, intelligence, and the ability to learn something completely new.

Those qualities weren’t necessarily reflected in his traditional credentials for the job, but they were clearly demonstrated through his experience. We took a chance on him and hired him. He stayed with the company for more than 25 years and quickly became a frontline supervisor. The organization benefited in ways we could not have anticipated. We had a large Vietnamese customer population that was sometimes difficult to support because of language barriers, and he became an important bridge for us. He also referred several of his former colleagues from the manufacturing company, who went on to become successful, long-term employees.

This was a true example of talent defined by capability

Three Steps to Overhaul the Talent Pipeline

1. Revamp the Job Description

Don’t simply copy and paste the old job description. Sit down with the hiring manager and challenge the traditional “must-have” requirements. Start by identifying the top five technical and behavioral skills needed to be successful in the role. Focus on what someone needs to be able to do, not simply what their resume needs to say.

2. Review the Screening Process

Get beyond the ATS and its reliance on keywords, job titles, and traditional career paths. Look for the hidden gems that might otherwise be overlooked because their experience doesn’t perfectly match the traditional profile. A candidate may not have the exact title or educational background you expected, but their experience may demonstrate the skills, adaptability, and potential you actually need.

3. Ask Questions That Tell You More

As humans, we all have biases toward people who are “like us.” We may naturally connect with someone who attended a similar school, has a similar educational background, or shares experiences with us. That familiarity can influence our perception of a candidate’s potential.

Training interviewers to use behavioral and competencybased questions can help shift the conversation away from credentials and toward demonstrated ability. Instead of simply asking, “Where did you work?” or “What degree do you have?” ask questions that help uncover how someone thinks, learns, adapts, solves problems, and gets things done.

The Way Forward

This doesn’t have to mean changing your entire hiring process overnight. Start small. Identify an opportunity to pilot a skillsfirst approach and prove that the methodology can work. Encourage the people involved in hiring to think differently about the traditional way of identifying talent. Ask them to help create a more even playing field and open the door to a broader range of perspectives and experiences.

Most importantly, be willing to hear their concerns. Talk through those concerns and determine how the process can be changed thoughtfully and effectively. Our role in HR is to help organizations find the best employees. And sometimes, the best talent doesn’t have the best-looking credentials.

True talent is defined more by capability than credentials.