Considering skills-based hiring? Resource hub helps agencies move from concept to practice
Woman wearing a white hard hat screws a wrench on machinery. Phynart Studio via Getty Images
The STARs Public Sector Hub will offer data, research and collaborative resources to help governments implement skills-based hiring.
It’s estimated that for the 850,000 open positions in state and local government in November 2023, only 330,000 people were hired. For many agencies, vacant positions stymie workflow and weaken customer service as short-staffed teams try to address the issues that outnumber them.
With unemployment so low, government has trouble competing for workers, so agencies are starting to fill empty jobs by innovating the hiring process. Recruiters are focusing on candidates’ experience and skills rather than relying on higher-ed degrees to screen job applicants.
As of February, at least 19 states have moved to reconsider degree requirements or remove them from job postings entirely. But progress has been slow as officials figure out how to make skills-based hiring work, unsure of how to define skills and how to assess them to inform the hiring process.
That’s where the Skilled Through Alternative Routes, or STARs, Public Sector Hub comes in.
Launching last week, the STARs Public Sector Hub gives government officials access to data, research insights, and policy and programming playbooks, among other tools to sharpen their own skills-based hiring programs.
Participating members can collaborate and share ideas at events and get technical assistance rolling out skills-based hiring through the hub. For a fee, members can receive customized insights, a narrative designed to encourage leaders to action and data to support skills-based employment, according to the site of Opportunity@Work, the nonprofit leading the initiative.
The hub’s work is also supported by organizations including CompTIA, Google, LinkedIn, McKinsey and Company, among others.
With 62% of working-age Americans not holding a college diploma and public sector workforce shortages continuing, it's time to rethink government job requirements, experts said. Plus, the nation’s pivot to clean energy and advanced technologies will require workers with new skills—many of which can’t be learned by sitting in a college classroom.
“There has been a wave of legislation and public and private investment coming into many new and emerging industries,” said Byron Auguste, CEO and co-founder of Opportunity@Work, at an event announcing the organization’s new workforce initiative. “If you do the math, there’s absolutely no way that semiconductors, health care, green energy—none of these fields—can actually be staffed … without skills.”
Observers say degree requirements often bar otherwise qualified applicants from being considered for certain jobs. The practice also exacerbates economic inequities as degrees traditionally make it easier to secure higher-paying jobs.
Plus, opening up jobs to people with different backgrounds and capabilities brings unique advantages to the table, Steeve Auguste, a service desk analyst for Massachusetts, told Route Fifty. They can, for instance, better connect with residents through their shared backgrounds, improving customer service and service delivery.
In June, the STARs Public Sector Hub will start accepting applications for its first cohort of state leaders to discuss developments in skills-based hiring. Opportunity@Work will host a webinar June 5 to share more details on programming and application details. Interested parties can register here.
Senior manager of policy at Opportunity@Work Henry Bartholomay told Route Fifty that the cohort’s timeline and programming are still under review, but it’s slated to run for 12 to 24 weeks and will focus on overcoming challenges in skills-based hiring as identified by participants.
Preliminary feedback from interested states, for instance, indicates policymakers are unsure how to substitute hiring assessments for degrees, he said. While hiring managers may check someone’s transcript during the evaluation process, agencies must determine an equitable way to assess someone’s skills.
The cohort aims to help “explore what that answer would be, and how that applies to the public sector,” Bartholomay said.
Ultimately, states need support as they write the next chapter on hiring practices. It will take legislative action, systems change and even cultural shifts to implement effective skills-based hiring in the public sector, he said.
The STARs Public Sector Hub will serve as a foundation for state and local government agencies determining how to make skills-based hiring work for them. “Perfection is the enemy of starting,” Bartholomay said at the event.
NEXT STORY: As a key labor union pushes into the South, red states push back