DE Talk Unplugged: Transforming Your Workforce Through Skills-Based Hiring

by | Feb 1, 2023 | Diversity & Inclusion, Networking and Education

In January we released not one but two new episodes of the DE Talk podcast! In a very special minisode, our VP of Strategic Partnerships, Shannon Offord, sat down with Cappfinity’s Global Head of Marketing, La Toya Hodge, to discuss the potential for skills-based hiring to transform the workforce and ultimately make it more diverse and equitable for all. Catch a snippet of the conversation below and then listen to the full minisode for more great insight into this hiring trend you need to be aware of in 2023.

Shannon Offord:

Let’s talk a little bit about how skills-based hiring can support your DE&I efforts. And I know that when we initially spoke a couple of years ago, we talked about how if you’re continuing to look in the same place, you’re going to get the same results. So, can you just talk a little bit about how skills-based hiring can support DE&I?

La Toya Hodge:

I feel so excited when I think about the possibility. In terms of a DE&I, if you’re looking to have an employee base that matches your customer base, DE&I is how you get there. And by retrofitting your roles to fit what you actually need in those jobs, you get away from some of those things that used to screen out diverse talent. So, that degree requirement or professional experience from a marquee company where it had very low instances of diverse talent, and by looking at what – I think you mentioned it before, like aptitude, letting somebody actually show you what they can do during the interview process – means that people that used to be maybe left out of just the entire interview or just even contention, now have an actual shot. And that has positive implications when you think of DE&I from a gender, or from a racial, or from an ability or accessibility standpoint.

So, I really think that skills might be this thing that really helps us to go from helping some companies because a lot of companies did make significant strides, but others are still trying to get there. And I think skills-based hiring really is a way to level the playing field and in a way that really puts people in jobs that they’re really going to be good at and that they’ll stay in and that’ll be good for everybody. And in my mind, in very short order, that results in a more inclusive or more diverse and equitable workplace.

Shannon Offord:

Awesome. What obstacles do you think employers will see as they try to implement more skills-based hiring? And obviously this is not going to be completely easy and not everybody’s going to be excited about it, but what are some of the challenges you see with this…

To uncover the potential challenges of skills-based hiring employers may face and predictions for its use and success in the coming year, be sure to listen to the minisode in its entirety – and keep an eye on your inbox in the coming days for an invitation to participate in a research project on this very topic!

Kacie Koons
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