Recruitment and hiring are where Skills-First often starts, bringing people in based on what they can do, not just the credentials they hold. It means writing roles around skills, assessing candidates on capability, and making hiring decisions more consistent and fair. Done well, it widens your talent pool and improves the quality of hires.
Practical Steps You Can Take
Explore practical ways to make Skills-First part of how your organisation plans, designs and transforms work.
đź’ˇ Expand each practice to see how you can put it into action.
You write job advertisements in terms of the actual tasks and skills required, using shared, sector-wide definitions — not vague titles.
Try this:
- Describe the role clearly in terms of the key tasks the person will perform day to day.
- Reference the Skills Framework to identify and describe the skills required to perform those tasks successfully.
You assess candidates based on the skills required for the role, using demonstrated capabilities, and qualifications as complementary sources of evidence.
Try this:
Decide the 3–5 skills that matter most for the role and assess each one directly.
Treat qualifications as one source of evidence, alongside work samples, skills-based assessments and other demonstrations of capability.
Use the same assessment criteria for all candidates applying for the job role to ensure consistency and fairness in hiring decisions.
You formalise skills-based hiring practices so that candidates are assessed consistently, rather than relying on individual managers’ judgement.
Try this:
Document a skills-based hiring process so every manager follows the same approach.
Train hiring managers to assess skills consistently.
Review hiring outcomes regularly to check the process is working and fair.
You use work samples or practical tasks to assess candidates’ skills, and regularly evaluate and refine these assessments to improve hiring decisions.
Try this:
Design a short, job-relevant task that mirrors real work - not a generic test.
Score practical assessments against clear criteria so they're comparable across candidates.
Review which assessments predicted strong hires, and refine them over time.
You leverage relevant national and industry tools, such as Skills Frameworks and Jobs Transformation Maps, where appropriate, rather than spending time and money building your own from scratch.
Try this:
Check for publicly available resources before commissioning new tools.
Reference jobs-skills content from publicly available resources instead of starting from scratch.
Assign someone to locate, interpret and stay current on updated resources so the organisation can reference them quickly.
You distinguish general, transferable skills from knowledge unique to your organisation, and make sure critical know-how is documented and passed on — protecting the business against disruption when key people leave or retire.
Try this:
Identify which knowledge is unique to your organisation versus transferable across sectors, and document the unique parts.
Create knowledge-sharing practices, walkthroughs, documentation, mentoring pairs, for roles held by a single person.
Build handover plans into role transitions so know-how isn't lost when key people leave or retire.
You regularly check whether your organisation’s Skills-First practices are actually improving performance, retention or profitability.
Try this:
Decide on 2–3 indicators, such as internal mobility, retention, time-to-fill, or training-to-application, and track them consistently.
Review whether Skills-First practices are actually improving outcomes, not just being adopted.
Share results with managers so they can see the value and adjust their approach.