Gordon Pelosse is senior vice president, employer engagement at CompTIA. Unlocking the potential in millions of under and unemployed.
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In talking to young people over the past months, one common thread brings back some old memories of when I was first entering the job market. All the entry-level job postings seemed to be asking for degrees and years of experience. But I found that I couldn't get a job without experience and I couldn't get experience without a job. That posed a problem: Do I take any old job to gain some experience? How does that help when I can’t find a role in my given field? That was the problem back then and it is a problem today.
Young people need help and employers haven’t been making it any easier; in many cases, employers have made the problem worse. One challenge that has been coined “degree inflation” is the retirement of many highly skilled non-degree-holding individuals whose replacement job descriptions level up to include a degree requirement. That job that didn’t require a degree in the past now requires one.
Have we as managers simply taken the easy way out? Defaulting to using the degree as a proxy for the fundamental skills of the job? Well, that seems flawed; degrees aren't always a great measure of skills. Why not just determine the skills required for the role and assess a candidate against that list of skills?
Employers need to recognize the problem they create when they write the perfect entry-level job posting that requires a degree, three to five years' experience and specific skills or certifications that take years to obtain. They have created a position that virtually no one qualifies for, and those who do qualify are well beyond entry level. A recent analysis of job posting data by my company, CompTIA, found that out of over 500,000 entry-level jobs, 57% required a degree. Other research has found that 42% of the population has a degree.
That ideal job description inadvertently excludes many of the diverse candidates that many companies are trying to attract. Think about hiring people who represent your customer base, which has a diverse representation by way of education, race, gender, background and economic diversity.
Consider, for instance, the cybersecurity space where talent is extremely hard to find. A CISSP certification requires a degree and a minimum of five years of paid work experience, and yet we see entry-level jobs posted with this as a minimum requirement. Many examples of this conflict exist and are likely contributing to why job postings go unfilled, with few applicants passing the screening as many don’t meet the requirements.
What is the solution?
Basing your posting on the skills required to do the job is the first step. Establishing that minimum can help you avoid the common problem of over-spec’ing the job.
There are plenty of free web-based tools that help provide templates of dozens of job descriptions that use best practices, are balanced, use appropriate experience and skills by level and provide salary guidance exist. For instance, the not-for-profit I work with, CompTIA (the Computing Technology Industry Association), in association with Lightcast created a free tool that helps optimize technical and cyber roles.
Determine the real educational requirement. Does this job require a degree or will appropriate experience, skill or certification do? Can you hire a candidate who has 75% of the requirements and invest in training to bring them up to the level required? Remember, many people don’t have a degree.
1. Review your jobs and do a skills requirements analysis. Consider what the minimum skills are and what is optimal, and what certifications are ideal for your role.
2. Base your job postings on the minimum skills required to do the job; consider leveraging certifications.
3. Write inclusive, skills-based job postings.
4. Train your hiring managers to use skills-based interviewing techniques.
5. Screen for potential that you can build on, such as desire, tenacity, curiosity, commitment, drive, discipline, confidence, leadership and integrity.
6. Build a training and investment plan for new and existing staff.
7. Work with local community colleges to inform them of your needs so they can craft a program to develop grads who fit your needs.
8. Develop skills-based onboarding to get the new hires oriented and off to a running start.
In today's uncertain economic climate, employers can take proactive steps to ensure they're hiring the right fit for the organization.
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