All You Need to Know About Skills-Based Hiring
Skills-based hiring isn’t a trend. It’s the future of work.
If you’re a hiring manager or talent acquisition leader ready to shift from traditional proxies and old recruiting methods and instead fill your job demand based on talent skills, competencies and potential, then this page is for you.
It brings together everything you need to understand, implement, and optimize a skills-based hiring strategy—backed by real-world examples, how-to guides, free downloadable resources, and success stories from employers across industries.
What Is Skills-Based Hiring?
Skills-based Hiring is a talent acquisition strategy that evaluates candidates based on their skills, competencies, capabilities, and potential, no matter where these skills and traits come from—rather than focusing solely on 4-year degrees and years of experience in a specific job title. This is how companies are building more competitive and innovative teams, creating new pipelines of talent, and driving better business outcomes.
Why Skills-Based Hiring is on the Rise
- Accelerates time to productivity with talent skills aligned for the job or project
- Expands talent pools by removing unnecessary degree requirements
- Creates equitable hiring practices when all candidates are assessed on the same skills
- Future-proofs your workforce to remain nimble in a fast-paced tech landscape
Meet STARs: Talent who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes
One of the most powerful shifts in the hiring landscape is the rise of STARs—job seekers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes rather than through a traditional four-year degree. STARs gain their skills through a variety of experiences including community college, military service, workforce training programs, apprenticeships, internships and on-the-job experience—and they represent a vast, untapped source of talent.
Today, the U.S. workforce over the age of 25 is comprised of over 70 million workers that do not hold 4-year degrees, yet many of our job descriptions unnecessarily require a 4-year degree for entry-level and mid-career roles. This is holding companies back and our economy back, when we don’t see talent for the skills they possess, no matter how those skills were acquired.
Just think of the power in your hiring strategy when you could access this vast talent pool if you only just removed the 4-year degree requirement where it is not necessary.
At YUPRO Placement, we’ve been placing STARs for over 10 years. We don’t just believe in their potential—we see it realized every day.
STAR Spotlight: Rain Guerra
Take Rain Guerra’s story, for example: From the Philippines to the NYSE. After immigrating to the U.S., Rain completed the Year Up United Career Pathways program and secured an apprenticeship through YUPRO Placement. Today, she’s thriving in a high-impact role at a top financial services firm.
Rain is one of many STARs we’ve helped employers discover and hire. These individuals don’t just meet expectations—they exceed them. If your hiring process isn’t set up to find them, you’re missing out.
When opportunity opens for STARs, the sky is the limit. To learn more about the skills-first hiring revolution and the power of hiring STARs, we invite you to learn more and join us in the #TearthePaperCeiling Campaign today.
Skills-Based Hiring in Action: Industry-Specific Insights
We’ve partnered with companies across financial services, life sciences, pharma, insurance, and tech to help them shift from traditional hiring models to a skills-first approach. Explore how it plays out across sectors:
- Cloud, AI, SaaS, and Cybersecurity
Winning the Brutal Talent War in Cloud, Cybersecurity & AI
How to Implement Skills-Based Hiring in Cloud, AI, SaaS, and Cybersecurity
Earn-and-Learn Programs in Cloud, AI, SaaS, and Cybersecurity - Property Management
- YUPRO Placement Expands Skills-Based Hiring to Property Management Industry
How to Get Started with Skills-Based Hiring
- Skills-Based Hiring: Lessons Learned
A real-world look at what works (and what doesn’t) when companies implement this model.
- How to Write an Effective Skills-Based Job Posting
A tactical guide to rethinking job descriptions for impact.
- Skills-Based Job Posting Templates
Plug-and-play templates to fast-track your hiring strategy.
- Professional Apprenticeships as a Strategic Solution
How earn-and-learn models create real pipelines of skilled talent.
Need Help Making the Case Internally?
Many TA leaders and hiring managers support skills-based hiring in theory—but get stuck on how to build buy-in with other leaders in their organization. These resources can help you rally internal stakeholders and connect the dots to ROI:
- Your Future Depends on Skills: The New Rules of Headcount Planning
Learn how skills-based strategies tie directly to workforce planning and business success.
- Stop the Salary Wars for Early- and Mid-Career Talent
Skills-based hiring can lower cost per hire and reduce turnover—without compromising quality.
- How Talent Gaps Disrupt Tech Operations (and How Leaders Fix It)
A look at what’s really holding back innovation—and how a skills-first approach solves it.
Free Resources to Accelerate Your Shift
Ready to bring skills-based hiring to life in your organization? These tools are built for HR and talent acquisition leaders like you:
Take the Next Step
Whether you’re leading talent strategy for a Fortune 500 company or running a workforce development program, there’s a way to bring skills-based hiring to life—starting today.