The last thing a recruiter wants to do is fill a position with someone who doesn’t have the skills to perform the role. Not only will a poor hire take longer to assimilate into the workplace culture, but it could lead to lost dollars for the company in training and productivity costs.

Skills-first hiring has been touted as a way to ensure that a prospective hire is the right fit. But how do organizations make certain it actually connects jobs and opportunities to historically marginalized groups and doesn’t just perpetuate the status quo?

That question was posed by Hannah Awonuga, group head of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the real estate consultancy Knight Frank, during a panel discussion at Talent Connect 2023. Hannah was part of a lively discussion that was led by Cammie Erickson, director of social impact at LinkedIn, and that included Kara Yarnot, vice president of strategic consulting services at HireClix, and Anthony R. Garcia, CEO of Purepost.

Here are five takeaways from their discussion on the need for equity in skills-first hiring practices:

1. Refine your definition of talent

Before implementing any hiring strategy, you should first consider what you mean when you say you want the best person for the job, Hannah said. Then make sure your selection process doesn’t steer you off track.

For example, if your goal is to identify a person who has strong leadership skills, make sure your hiring process actually uncovers examples of applicants leading groups successfully rather than favoring someone for other reasons such as they once worked at a particular company or they once attended a certain school. If you want someone who has a lot of grit, your process should be able to root out instances of the candidate showing tenacity and performing well under pressure.

Also keep in mind that sometimes people acquire skills through life experiences. As an example, Kara pointed out that many hiring managers say they want employees who can overcome obstacles. She pointed out that certain groups, including people with disabilities, have had to overcome obstacles regularly. “They can bring you those skills,” she noted, “that everybody says are really, really important. You need to train your recruiters and hiring managers to interview for those skills as they are not evident on a resume.”

2. De-emphasize formal education

When Kara asks hiring managers what skills they are looking for, soft skills like resilience, planning, and organizing are often top of mind — “things you don’t learn in a specific four-year degree program,” she said.

And some groups of professionals have faced more limited access to higher education. For example, the majority of those enlisted in the military don’t have college degrees, Anthony pointed out. People with disabilities are also less likely to have a college degree than those who do not have disabilities, Kara added.

Organizations that focus most of their energies on sourcing candidates from elite Ivy League schools are naturally going to have fewer Black candidates since the eight Ivy League institutions enrolled only 5,063 Black students among their nearly 70,000 undergraduates in the past year.

If you’re only considering candidates who have a college degree — or those who graduated from a particular college or university — you could be missing out on someone who would do a stellar job. If someone has the soft skills you need — whether they developed them in school or in life — you may, in many cases, be able to teach them the hard skills a role calls for, Hannah noted. In fact, retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart have embraced training programs that allow employees to learn new skills and move into new positions in the process.

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