Combat Talent Shortages: Skills First Hiring and Transferable Skills

Talent shortages and skills gaps. A common challenge for businesses, leaders and talent teams across the globe. With the growing need to access top talent, hiring teams are adopting alternative approaches to their talent attraction strategy to widen talent pools. 

Businesses are eager to attract new skillsets, technical talent and more diverse talent pools to enable their business to grow and keep up with market developments and digital transformation. 

As a result, hiring teams are looking to access bigger pools of talent with a focus on skills and technical abilities, rather than a sole focus on industry experience or academic background. This is where skills first hiring and cross pollination of skills is becoming increasingly talked about. 

What is Skills First Hiring?

If skills first hiring is an unfamiliar term, in short – ‘Skills first hiring is an approach where hiring managers focus on the skills and attributes a candidate has, and the value these skills can bring to an organisation. Skills first hiring places less emphasis on academic qualifications and industry specific experience and focuses on the strengths of skills and competencies of a candidate.”  

With skills first hiring approaches, organisations instantly widen talent pools, and access more diverse candidates which leads to greater hiring outcomes and increased creativity and innovation. 

A study carried out by OneTen highlighted that 62% of organisations in the US said that using a skills-first approach helped to create a more diverse and inclusive talent base. 

Interested in hearing which states are leading the way in the US, the top roles in demand, and the transferable skills to focus on to enable a successful skills first approach? View our industry showdown across the US here. 

This approach can offer a wide range of benefits to businesses struggling to overcome talent shortages, limited talent pools and skills gaps within their business. To read more on skills first hiring and the advantages this approach can bring, read our article – Adopting a skills first hiring practice to futureproof your business. 

Milda Saenz, Chief of Staff at EnergyX recently joined us on Conversations with CSG, she shared with Junaid Hussain, Senior Consultant in our Battery Materials team why their business is adopting a skills first hiring approach in a market where talent pools can be extremely limited – “You simply open yourself up to more talent when you focus on the skills. Focus on attributes and what can a person do, rather than focusing on what degrees they have, you solve a lot of problems with hiring.” 

One example Milda shared was the abundance of talent with experience of oil and gas in Texas, while they don’t have experience within EnergyX space directly, they have a range of transferable kills and technical understanding which would allow them to operate successfully in a role within the industry, albeit with some training and transition support. 

Are Businesses Open to Hiring Talent without Industry Experience?

While skills-first hiring is a common buzzword across the market, from our own experiences working across a wealth of industry sectors globally, it is still not a widely adopted approach. Many of the businesses we work with require talent with relevant industry specific experience, however we have seen a shift in businesses considering talent from areas outside of their niche, more allied and connected industries with similarities and transferable experience and skills. 

Adam Raybould, Director - Construction Equipment & FMCG & Consumer at CSG Talent – “I've seen a little more where companies are hiring from industries outside of their niche. It can be very difficult in the Construction Equipment industry to take people completely out of industry because it’s important for candidates to understand the machines, the engineering behind it and the applications of the machines. However, I have seen people transfer from the VR automotive space or materials handling forklift space into lifting equipment, so businesses are becoming a little more open to taking people outside of the niches than they used to be.” 

Which Industries are Adopting Skills First Hiring Approaches?

The truth is, not many. 

In a recent LinkedIn poll, we asked our audience - How open are you to taking a skills-first approach to hiring?

Sixty five percent stated they were very open to adopting a skills-first approach to hiring, 25% somewhat open, and 10% not open at all. While there are still many industries who haven't implemented skills-first hiring, these statistics indicate how open businesses are to adapting their approach to reflect market conditions. Interestingly, of the 65% very open to skills-first hiring, 67% were based in the USA made up of managers through to C-suite level. Some of the core industries that took part in the poll included; Food & Beverage, Mining, Engineering, Construction and Building materials.

Newer, emerging industries are early adopters of the skills first hiring as they have even more limited talent pools than more traditional industries, so they have had to adapt and apply this approach to ensure business growth. 

Within the Testing, Inspection and Certification industry, businesses are a little more open to hiring talent from across a range of industries, partly due to the nature of the industry and how they work across many industries and collaborate, but they also know they can tap into much wider talent pools without seeking talent from direct competitors where talent pools are limited. 

Jordan Roberts, Principal Consultant in the TIC recruitment at CSG Talent – “Some businesses are really focused on soft skills in the hiring process which is where hiring teams are more open to less relevant industry experience and look at the other areas an individual can add value to a business. For some of the more technical roles, it’s a simple process of establishing if a candidate has the relevant skills or certification, qualifications to allow them to carry out the role, so this is very skills driven.” 

Transferable Skills to Enable a Successful Skills-First Hiring Strategy

There are a number of skills high in demand across all industries, we’re seeing a significant increase in the demand for talent in three core areas; engineering, project management and sales. There is a demand for talent in all areas, with the number of jobs still significantly exceeding the number of skilled workers, but these three functions are a top priority for the businesses we work in partnership with across the globe. 

For each of these core areas, while industry specific role responsibilities will apply, there are core transferable skills which would enable this technical and skilled talent to move across industries. Ultimately leading to more diverse talent pools across all industries by adopting a skills first approach. 

Project Management

Looking at Project Management and the role of Project Managers and Project Directors and the core skills required:  

• Project planning 
• Analysis 
• Scheduling 
• Budgeting 
• Stakeholder management 
• Risk management 

Talent with these skillsets could easily transfer across industry sectors from Mining, Construction, Technology, Healthcare, Marketing and many more. 

Engineering

Engineering is vast, but some of the core Engineering roles we support our clients with across the globe include; Data Engineers, Mining Engineers, System Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Civil Engineers. Some of the core skills required to operate as an Engineer include:  

• Structural analysis 
• Design skills 
• Compliance and Quality Assurance 
• Testing and Evaluation 
• Maths and Science 
• Technical skills 

Engineering talent with attributes and skills in the areas above can work across a range of industries including; Construction, Consumer, Energy, Mining, Life Science, Automotive and many more. 

Sales and Business Development

Within sales and business development functions across any industry, professional should display the following key skills:  

• Market research and forecasting 
• Relationship building 
• Lead generation 
• Negotiation skills 
• Communication and Active listening skills 
• Problem solving 

All industries require driven and motivated sales professionals to help support business growth, at a senior and more strategic level, as well as building out large sales and business development teams. While there are some industries that require a strong technical knowledge of their product or services, skilled and successful sales talent should in theory, be able to transfer their skillsets across industries. 

We delve into this in a lot more detail across over 10 states in North America, tapping into the roles in demand, transferable skills and the states experiencing the most significant growth in the industries we have strong presence within. Click here to explore this and gain insights to support business and resource planning for the next 12 months. 

If you are keen to share your thoughts and experiences on skills first hiring, or you are keen to learn more on the benefits and value a skills first hiring approach can bring to your business, speak with our team who can offer advice and successful hiring approaches. Alternatively, if you’re a senior level professional seeking a new opportunity, please explore our latest job vacancies here, or contact the recruitment team here.