Why Human-Centered Skills Are the Next Hiring Frontier

Skills-based hiring is gaining momentum — and for good reason. By prioritizing skills over traditional credentials, organizations can build more inclusive, agile workforces. However, most conversations around skills-based hiring tend to focus on hard skills that are easy to test and certify, such as coding, data analysis, and equipment operation.

As organizations look to align talent strategies with future-of-work trends, a more complex challenge is emerging: hiring for in-demand cognitive and social-emotional skills such as analytical thinking, creative problem-solving, and adaptability. The skills employers need are already evolving, as more than 1 in 4 organizations said full-time positions they’ve hired for in the past year required new skills, according to SHRM’s 2025 Talent Trends report. The same report found more than 2 in 3 organizations reported having difficulty finding qualified individuals for these roles.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report 2025, capabilities such as self-awareness and flexibility are quickly becoming essential. The problem? These skills are more difficult to measure, and most hiring practices aren’t designed to assess them. Meanwhile, some traditionally emphasized skills, such as manual dexterity and basic programming, are expected to appear less often in job listings and decline in importance. 

To remain competitive, companies must rethink what it means to hire for the future. This requires shifting from traditional role-based hiring to a focus on capabilities. But how do you hire for qualities such as adaptability, problem-solving, and resilience — skills that don’t always appear on a resume?  

Why Human-Centered Skills Are the Future of Work

“As organizations embrace an AI-driven future, the most valuable skills are no longer just technical — they’re human,” Alonso said. Cognitive, creative, and social-emotional capabilities, often called soft skills, are becoming essential to workforce longevity and business success.

Qualities such as curiosity — the willingness to explore new ideas and embrace lifelong learning — can spark innovation, while resilience and agility can provide a competitive advantage in times of uncertainty.

The Rising Value of Human Skills in the Age of Automation

AI is transforming workflows and reshaping job functions. But while it excels at automating repetitive tasks and analyzing data at scale, it still struggles with the nuance of human interaction. 

AI can’t yet replicate empathy, creativity, or moral judgment. As it takes over certain hard skills, the need for distinctly human skills including adaptability and critical thinking grows. These are the capabilities that allow people to navigate change, fuel innovation, and solve complex problems as the demands of the future workforce continue to evolve.  

“In a world where technology evolves by the minute, it’s human capabilities that provide lasting value,” Alonso said. “Organizations that prioritize these skills aren’t just future-ready — they’re future-defining.”

The Problem: Most Hiring Systems Aren’t Built to Assess These Skills 

Today, standard hiring processes and systems aren’t configured to effectively evaluate human-centric skills. TestGorilla’s The State of Skills Based Hiring 2025 report reveals that more than half of U.S employers (55%) say determining whether candidates have the right soft skills is the most difficult part of their current hiring process. Despite this, resumes (67%) and interviews (77%) remain the primary hiring tools used by these organizations, while far fewer use cognitive ability tests (30%) or self-report tests such as personality assessments (23%).

By relying on resumes, job titles, and degrees to assess talent, organizations risk missing out on high-potential talent from nontraditional backgrounds. These credentials do little to capture traits such as social influence, collaboration, or emotional regulation. Unlike coding certifications or machine operation licenses, there’s often no standardized credential to prove a candidate’s soft skills. Additionally, relying on interviews and gut instincts to assess soft skills is neither reliable nor scalable, as these methods are often inconsistent and susceptible to bias.

This underscores the need for better methods to identify human-centric skills in hiring, addressing a major blind spot that risks missing future-ready talent. To overcome this, companies must shift from credential-based screening to practical, evidence-based tools.

What Future-Ready, Skills-Based Hiring Looks Like

“The operating model of the future is skills-based, not job-based,” Ravin Jesuthasan, senior partner and global leader for transformation services at Mercer, said at the Workhuman Live 2025 conference. As demand grows for cognitive, creative, and social-emotional skills, employers can turn to innovative methods designed to capture these hard-to-measure capabilities.

Skills-Based Interviews and Evaluations

“Stop planning careers around jobs. Start designing them around skills,” Jesuthasan said. Skills-based interviews focus less on credentials and more on evidence of past performance and potential. Blind evaluations, where identifying details are removed from resumes, also help reduce bias and identify candidates whose skills and experiences directly align with a role, regardless of pedigree.

Assessments and Simulations

Gamified and scenario-based assessments allow candidates to demonstrate real-time decision-making, creative problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. Tools including Pymetrics, Plum.io, and SHL offer simulations that provide a more accurate read on a candidate’s future performance than traditional interviews.

AI and Behavioral Science for Skills Detection

“AI can help you identify tomorrow’s leaders earlier,” Jesuthasan said. “Some of your best future leaders are being overlooked today because they don’t fit the traditional mold.” Advanced hiring platforms now use natural language processing to analyze communication style and predictive analytics to forecast candidate success. These tools enhance decision-making and minimize unconscious bias, enabling organizations to effectively assess soft skills at scale.

Portfolio- or Project-Based Hiring

Rather than asking for a degree, employers are requesting proof of capability. Case studies, writing samples, project portfolios, and strategic proposals reveal how candidates think, lead, and communicate. These samples are especially beneficial for roles that require creativity, innovation, and influence.

Internal Talent Marketplaces

Skills-based hiring isn’t just for recruitment. Internal talent marketplaces leverage behavioral and performance data to connect employees with new roles, projects, or upskilling opportunities. “The most adaptable organizations are building talent marketplaces — not just job ladders,” Jesuthasan said. By surfacing untapped talent already inside the organization, this strategy boosts agility and builds a future-ready bench from within.

These approaches mark a shift from static qualifications to dynamic skills, emphasizing the capabilities needed to build resilient teams in an ever-evolving world.

Applying Skills-Based Hiring to Soft Skills: From Intent to Implementation 

While skills-based hiring has garnered significant buzz, its full potential remains largely untapped. In 2023, fewer than 1 in 700 hires came from a truly skills-based process, according to a study by Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute. The issue isn’t lack of intent — it’s that policies outpace practices. Despite updated degree policies, hiring decisions at the role level still default to traditional credentials, undermining progress toward skills-first practices.

Several challenges are slowing this progress:

• Misalignment between hiring managers and HR on which skills matter.

• Limited tooling or infrastructure to assess soft skills objectively.

• Lack of budget and bandwidth to adopt new systems or assessments.

• Risk aversion and defaulting to pedigree over potential.

Failure to address these gaps puts organizations at risk of falling behind as workforce needs continue to shift rapidly. Hiring for human-centric skills requires new systems and processes that go beyond revised job postings.

Practical Takeaways for HR and Business Leaders

“HR can’t be a sideline player anymore — it has to be a strategic architect of transformation,” Jesuthasan said. The following steps can help HR leaders move from vision to execution and create hiring processes that are inclusive, competitive, and future-focused: 

1. Invest in skills assessments. SHRM’s 2024 Talent Trends report reveals that 78% of HR professionals believe pre-employment assessments have improved the quality of their hires.
2. Educate hiring managers on future skills and inclusive practices. Equip them with training in skills-based interviewing and inclusive evaluation to ensure they recognize potential beyond traditional credentials.
3. Pilot soft-skills-based hiring in select departments. Start small by testing soft skill assessments such as project work, AI-driven analysis, or behavioral interviews in a few teams or roles.
4. Use internal mobility and development programs as a test. Apply soft-skills-based hiring principles to internal promotions and reviews, creating a continuous feedback loop between hiring and learning and development teams.
5. Consistently update core skills frameworks as AI and market demands evolve. Regularly revisit and revise your organization’s core skills model to stay aligned with the future of work.  

Build the Workforce You Need Tomorrow — Today

The pace of disruption means organizations can’t afford to wait. Moving forward requires more than intent; it demands structural change. But for companies that make the shift, the payoff is a workforce better equipped for the future.  

By reimagining hiring today, businesses can ensure they remain agile, inclusive, and competitive into 2030 and beyond.

Explore the SHRM Foundation Skills First Specialty Credential to gain the tools, strategies, and confidence you need to lead your organization into the future of work.