Strategies for Rethinking Hiring, with Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.

The latest EN:Insights Forum explored a growing contradiction in today’s labor market: while economic uncertainty has softened parts of the market, many organizations are still struggling to find the talent they need to grow. The webinar previewed findings from SHRM’s latest report, Finding Talent: Rethinking Recruitment for Today’s Dynamic Labor Market, based on insights from more than 1,200 HR and recruitment professionals.

SHRM President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, joined the discussion to explain why traditional recruiting strategies are falling short and how leaders can rethink their hiring strategies.  

Here are a few insights from the conversation.

From your vantage point, talking with business leaders across industries, which story is closer to reality? Is the labor market actually tight or are organizations struggling to adapt their hiring models?

Taylor noted that both realities are true at the same time. While the labor market has softened in some sectors and workers are often holding onto jobs longer out of uncertainty, employers across industries still report significant difficulty finding the right talent.

Drawing on his conversations with leaders from both Fortune 500 companies and small- to mid-size organizations, Taylor said talent shortages continue to dominate executive concerns. “What continues to bubble to the top is talent,” he said. 

What parts of the traditional hiring playbook do you think no longer work, and leaders just haven’t admitted that yet?

According to Taylor, in a skills-first environment, employers must rethink both how they evaluate talent and where they look for it. For example, organizations may need to prioritize learning agility over traditional credentials alone. 

He emphasized the importance of tapping into overlooked talent pools, including workers with resume gaps or unconventional career paths. Historically, employers often filtered out these candidates, but Taylor noted that many individuals have used employment gaps to reskill themselves in areas such as AI and emerging technologies. “There’s a lot of reasons why people have gaps in their resume now that have nothing to do with their capabilities,” he said.

Skills-based hiring has become one of the most talked about ideas in HR, but in practice, many companies still default to degrees and traditional credentials. What do you think about the adoption of skills-based hiring? Why is it slower than we expect? 

One of the biggest barriers is validation, Taylor said. Degrees provide employers with a familiar benchmark, while the growing number of certifications and skill credentials can make it difficult to assess whether candidates truly possess the capabilities they claim.  

He also noted that possessing a credential does not automatically translate into job readiness. Employers still need reliable ways to determine whether candidates can apply those skills effectively in real-world environments. 

Beyond process challenges, Taylor argued that bias remains a major obstacle. Many hiring leaders instinctively gravitate toward candidates with degrees. “We’ve got to change the narrative, and we’ve got to highlight examples of where people without college degrees have been successful,” he said.