Microsoft-owned job-networking site LinkedIn is betting that the way employers hire candidates and the way candidates find jobs would radically change in the future. According to a report by the news agency Bloomberg on Friday (June 9), LinkedIn sees a future where employees will be willing to look beyond long-established entry requirements such as college degrees and prior job titles to focus instead on an applicant’s proven skills such as leadership, data analytics etc.
Citing a survey conducted last month, the report said while more than 80 per cent of employers believed that they should hire based on skills rather than degrees, more than half say they are still hiring college grads because it feels less risky.
Joseph Fuller, a management professor at Harvard Business School, said, “Skills-based hiring is the great white whale, the holy grail of the labour market.”
A skills-matching feature launched
In February this year, LinkedIn launched a skills-matching feature, allowing users to see how the skills a job calls for might align with their own strengths. The feature had some positive signs: Over 45% of recruiters on LinkedIn now search for candidates using skills data, according to the company.
Bloomberg reported that skills-first hiring is considered a way to expand economic opportunity, especially for people who do not have a college degree. However, there hasn’t been much large-scale progress in that direction till now.
Aneesh Raman, Vice-President and Head of The Opportunity Project at LinkedIn, said, “Skills has been a conversation that has been going on for years, for decades.”
“In those conversations were often the same people: policymakers, academics, nonprofits. Missing from those conversations, almost all of them, were employers,” Raman added.
And when it comes to skills-based hiring, Raman said, “Employers are no longer asking: ‘What is this?’ They’re asking, ‘How do I do this?’”
LinkedIn to use AI
With the surging use of artificial intelligence, LinkedIn is now building AI into its platform to make the match between job seekers and employers more efficient. The wildcard for LinkedIn might be its ability to tap into Microsoft’s AI progress. That might help the job-networking site surface often-overlooked candidates, like those who lack a four-year degree or have a criminal conviction, Professor Joseph Fuller from Harvard Business School said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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