Next Steps for HR Professionals, Hiring Managers
Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Please note that all such forms and policies should be reviewed by your legal counsel for compliance with applicable law, and should be modified to suit your organization’s culture, industry, and practices. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way (e.g., to republish in a book or use for a commercial purpose) without SHRM’s permission. To request permission for specific items, click on the “reuse permissions” button on the page where you find the item.
Image Caption
Page Content
[Learn more about alternative credentials: In Search for Qualified Workers, Maryland Drops Requirement for 4-Year Degree]
The SHRM report gives the following recommendations for better identifying job candidates who have the skills that organizations seek.
- Establish consensus among senior executives, hiring managers and HR professionals on how alternative credentials should be evaluated and used in hiring and upskilling.
- Identify tiered lists of credentials; define what the organization considers acceptable or valued; and share the lists with hiring managers, recruiters and credential providers. Use industry associations, credentialing organizations and frameworks, community colleges, and workforce boards as resources to understand the requirements embedded in the credentials.
- Include screening criteria in job descriptions to focus on skills and competencies. Start with vacancies that take a long time to fill or have high turnover and test the new hiring approach with those positions. Choose a population to focus on and find the best source of this talent, build in the accommodations required, and conduct internal training to help staff move from diversity to inclusion. Make it easy for the organization to adjust to one group and apply that learning to other groups.
- Confirm that your organization's applicant tracking system (ATS) can identify alternative credentials for all candidates.
- Adopt and track internal systems that acknowledge alternative credentials when screening applicants or evaluating candidates for promotions.
- Explore nontraditional ways for applicants to present and verify their skills. Start by asking your own employees who hold alternative credentials if and how they were able to communicate their skills during hiring.
- Educate and train HR professionals and hiring managers to make alternative credentials a part of inclusive hiring practices. Consider workshops for hiring managers and employees on how alternative credentials can be part of development and career progression.
- Research emerging and existing talent management technology that can match skills with job requirements for hiring and promoting people who hold alternative credentials—including tools such as
the Veterans Job Matcher, which translates veterans' skills and experience obtained in noncivilian jobs.
- Share success stories and best practices of hiring people with alternative credentials.
Source:
Making Alternative Credentials Work: A New Strategy for HR Professionals, SHRM, 2022.
Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Please note that all such forms and policies should be reviewed by your legal counsel for compliance with applicable law, and should be modified to suit your organization’s culture, industry, and practices. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way (e.g., to republish in a book or use for a commercial purpose) without SHRM’s permission. To request permission for specific items, click on the “reuse permissions” button on the page where you find the item.
You have successfully saved this page as a bookmark.
Please confirm that you want to proceed with deleting bookmark.
You have successfully removed bookmark.
Please log in as a SHRM member before saving bookmarks.
Your session has expired. Please log in as a SHRM member.
Please purchase a SHRM membership before saving bookmarks.
SHRM HR JOBS
Hire the best HR talent or advance your own career.