Better Hiring Begins with Defining the Business Outcome

Start with what your organization needs to accomplish, then work backward to identify the capabilities required to achieve it.

By Tirranny Nettles, Vice President of Client Delivery, YUPRO Placement

The skills organizations need are changing faster than many of their hiring practices. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, while 63% identify skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation.

For business leaders, those findings raise an important question: How can you hire effectively when the work and the capabilities required to perform it continues to evolve?

During more than 15 years in workforce development and a decade in staffing, I have worked with employers addressing a wide range of talent needs. Today, I lead YUPRO Placement’s client delivery and recruiting teams. That role gives me a view of the entire employment relationship: what business leaders need to accomplish, how recruiters translate those needs into a talent search, what managers experience after someone joins the team, and what employees need to contribute and advance.

Across those conversations, I have learned that better hiring begins with one question:

What business outcome are we trying to achieve?

Perhaps the organization is implementing a new technology, improving the customer experience, responding to a growing volume of work, or preparing for its next stage of growth. Whatever the objective, leaders must define it before deciding what role to create or what kind of person to hire.

Once the outcome is clear, the organization can work backward:

• What work must be completed to achieve it?
• What capabilities does that work require?
• Which skills are essential from the beginning?
• Which skills can be learned or developed?
• Who is capable of contributing now and growing with the work?

Only after answering those questions should the organization define the position and begin evaluating candidates.

That sequence may sound obvious, but hiring frequently begins at the opposite end. A position opens, an existing job description is retrieved, and the search begins for someone whose background resembles the person who previously held the role.

That process may fill the vacancy. It does not necessarily create the capability the business needs next.

Work backward from the business outcome

Every organization is working toward measurable objectives. There are customers to serve, revenue targets to reach, technologies to implement, risks to manage, and productivity goals to achieve.

The role being filled exists in service of one or more of those objectives. Yet the connection between the position and the business outcome can become obscured once the hiring process begins.

A manager may request a candidate with a certain degree, a specific number of years in the field, or experience with a familiar platform. Those requirements may be valid, but the most useful recruiting conversations go one level deeper.

What will this person be expected to accomplish? What problem will they help solve? What does successful performance look like after six months or a year? How is the work changing? What will the team need from this person that may not appear in the current job description?

The answers frequently reveal that the organization is looking for more than someone who has previously held a particular title. It may need someone who can analyze information, work across departments, learn a changing technology, communicate with customers, or take on greater responsibility as the business grows.

That distinction matters because the candidate with the most familiar résumé is not always the person best equipped to produce the desired result.

Clarifying the outcome also helps employers distinguish between capabilities candidates must bring with them and those they can develop after being hired. A specific technical skill may be essential on day one. Familiarity with an internal system, however, may be learned. Experience in the same industry may be helpful, while problem-solving ability and adaptability may ultimately contribute more to long-term performance.

The objective is not to relax the organization’s standards. It is to make those standards more relevant to the work.

Skills-first hiring is a business strategy

Once an organization understands the outcome it needs, it can evaluate candidates according to the capabilities most relevant to producing it. That is where a skills-first approach becomes valuable. LinkedIn has found that companies making the greatest use of skills-based candidate searches are 12% more likely to make a quality hire than companies using them the least.

Skills-first hiring is sometimes discussed primarily as a way to expand access to employment. It can certainly create opportunities for capable people who have been overlooked by traditional screening practices, but its value to employers goes much further.

At its core, skills-first hiring is about identifying the capabilities required to achieve a business outcome and evaluating candidates according to their ability to apply or develop those capabilities.

Degrees, job titles, and previous employers can provide useful information. They are also proxies. They suggest what someone may know without necessarily demonstrating what that person can do.

A skills-first approach looks more closely at technical knowledge, problem-solving, communication, discipline, curiosity, and the capacity to learn. It considers skills developed through work as well as those gained through certifications, training programs, apprenticeships, internships, military service, or other experiences.

This can uncover qualified people whose backgrounds do not follow a conventional path. More importantly, it helps employers concentrate on the characteristics most closely connected to successful performance.

That focus is especially valuable when the work itself is changing. An employer can hire someone who knows the current system, but the system may be replaced within two years. A particular software credential may meet an immediate need, while adaptability and continuous learning determine whether the employee can contribute as tools and processes evolve.

The question is therefore larger than whether a candidate can perform the job as it is written today. Employers must also consider whether the person has the capacity to grow with the work the organization will need tomorrow.

Hiring is only one part of building capability

A more intentional hiring process can identify strong talent, but the employer still has to create the conditions in which that talent can perform.

When someone joins an organization, there is often an assumption that a successful recruiting process will naturally produce a successful employee. In practice, the transition from candidate to contributing team member requires clear expectations, effective onboarding, feedback, coaching, and opportunities to build new skills.

This is particularly important when an employer intentionally hires for potential. The organization has recognized that a candidate possesses important foundational capabilities and can develop additional ones. The next step is providing the structure that allows that development to happen.

At YUPRO Placement, this is why our work continues after a person accepts an assignment. Our recruiters, client delivery managers, and Talent Success team maintain regular contact with employees and their managers, especially during the first few months. We want to understand where the employee is performing well, where expectations may be unclear, and where coaching or additional development could help.

Those conversations are not an extra service disconnected from business performance. They help protect the investment the employer has already made in identifying and onboarding talent.

When small problems go unnoticed, they can become performance issues or reasons for an employee to leave. When employers, employees, and talent partners communicate regularly, they can address those issues earlier and keep everyone focused on the outcome the role was created to support.

Development should continue after the immediate need is met

The same outcome-based thinking that improves hiring should also inform retention and advancement.

When an employee is performing well, the organization gains more than completed work. It gains someone who understands its systems, customers, expectations, and culture. That knowledge becomes increasingly valuable as the person develops.

Replacing an employee means replacing that accumulated knowledge as well. The organization must return to sourcing and interviewing, devote time to onboarding and training, and absorb the loss of productivity while someone new learns the role.

That is why the most effective employers continue asking what capabilities the business will need and whether current employees can be prepared to provide them.

An employee hired into an entry-level position may be able to develop into a middle-skill role. Someone completing a contract assignment may be a strong candidate for permanent employment. A team member who has mastered the current process may be ready to learn a new system or move into another department.

When employers view people only in relation to their current job descriptions, those possibilities can be easy to miss. When they view talent in relation to evolving business outcomes, development and internal mobility become part of workforce planning.

Career direction strengthens the employer-employee relationship

Employees also have outcomes they want to achieve. Many early- and middle-career professionals begin a job search by asking what positions are available or what opportunities someone might be willing to give them. Over time, I have seen a powerful shift occur when someone begins asking a more intentional question:

What kind of career and future do I want to build?

The answer does not mean every position must be an ideal destination. It gives each opportunity direction. An internship, apprenticeship, contract assignment, or entry-level role can become a purposeful step toward a longer-term goal.

I have seen professionals move from service-industry jobs into internships and then advance into software development. Others have progressed from internships into leadership positions. Their careers did not always follow a predictable sequence, but each opportunity allowed them to demonstrate their capabilities, acquire new skills, and move closer to the future they wanted.

Employers benefit when they understand those aspirations. A manager may discover that an employee wants to lead projects, develop a technical specialty, work with customers, or move into management. That knowledge can inform assignments, coaching, and development opportunities while helping the organization prepare talent for future needs.

The employee’s desired career outcome and the employer’s desired business outcome will not always align perfectly. When they do, however, the organization has an opportunity to create a relationship that is more valuable and durable for both sides.

Create a cycle of opportunity and advancement

A strong workforce strategy connects hiring, performance, development, and advancement.

A professional may enter an organization through an internship, apprenticeship, contract assignment, or early-career position. That person learns the business, applies existing skills, and develops new capabilities. As the employee advances into a larger role, another emerging professional receives the opportunity to enter and begin developing.

This creates a cycle of opportunity and advancement. Employers retain knowledge, strengthen their internal talent pipelines, and prepare people for work the organization will need in the future. Employees gain experience, greater responsibility, increased earning power, and a clearer path forward.

The organization is no longer repeatedly filling isolated vacancies. It is building capability over time.

That is what workforce development should accomplish. Candidate success and business performance are not competing priorities. People advance by developing skills and producing meaningful results, while organizations become stronger by recognizing, supporting, and retaining that capability.

The process begins well before a position is posted.

Before retrieving an old job description, leaders should ask:

What business outcome are we trying to achieve?

What work will produce that outcome?

What capabilities does the work require?

Which skills must someone bring, and which can be developed?

How will we help that person perform, grow, and continue contributing?

When those answers are clear, employers are better equipped to define the role, recognize qualified talent, and build teams capable of delivering the results the business needs.

That is the real promise of skills-first hiring: not simply filling more positions, but connecting people, skills, and development to the outcomes that move an organization forward.

Sources: World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025 and LinkedIn, “The Business Case for Skills-First Hiring”.

Tirranny Nettles is Vice President of Client Delivery and Recruiting at YUPRO Placement. With more than 15 years of experience in workforce development and a decade in staffing, she leads national recruiting, client delivery, and Talent Success initiatives. Her expertise spans healthcare, professional services, and IT staffing, with a focus on aligning talent strategy with business outcomes. A passionate advocate for skills-first hiring and career mobility, Tirranny helps employers identify overlooked talent, build workforce capabilities, and create pathways for people to contribute, develop, and advance.