Focus is on Candidates Actual Abilities and Competencies
Did you know that almost three-quarters of companies now use skills-based assessments throughout their hiring process, according to Test Gorilla’s State of Skills-Based Hiring 2023 report which surveyed 3,000 employees and employers around the world. This is up from 56% in the previous year.
According to Orianna Rosa Royle, in her article HERE, “although many of those employers still use conventional CVs, it might not be long until they’re a thing of the past because most bosses are already favoring the new hiring practice and reporting big results.”
Focus on What a Candidate Can Do
Skills-based recruitment focuses on a candidate’s actual abilities, competencies, and potential (both hard and soft skills) rather than traditional measurements like degrees, job titles, or even years of experience. According to AI, “this approach acknowledges that skills rapidly change and traditional qualifications often don’t predict job performance, allowing companies to access wider talent pools and reduce hiring bias.”
Royle says that the employers surveyed who use skills-based hiring—which includes role-specific skills assessments, instead of simply scanning someone’s listed career experience—reported massive gains.
According to TestGorilla’s research, it reduced the number of mis-hires by 88%, total time spent searching for the perfect candidate by 82 and hiring-related costs by 74%.
Overall, 92% of the employers surveyed reported that skills-based hiring is more effective at identifying talented candidates than a traditional CV. Meanwhile, over 80% said it’s more predictive of on-job success and leads to new hires staying longer in their roles.
By testing candidates on how they would handle the actual day-to-day responsibilities of a role, employers are more likely to hire the best person for the job instead of being drawn by big names and trendy titles.
Fair Treatment of all Candidates
Khyati Sundaram, CEO of the skill-based recruitment platform Applied, previously told Fortune, “just because someone has listed on their résumé that they’ve worked with the SEO team at somewhere like Google, it doesn’t actually mean they know the ins and outs of search engine optimization to the extent that’s required for a role. “We are trying to make sure the test or the question is as relevant to the job as possible,” Sundaram said, adding, “That’s the reason that candidates love it too.”
Most of the workers that TestGorilla surveyed think that skills-based hiring levels the playing field and improves their chances of getting their dream jobs.
This is especially true for candidates who are often overlooked. In fact, around three-quarters of the Black, Asian, and Arab employees that TestGorilla surveyed have already reportedly gained access to new employment opportunities through skills-based assessments.
Where Does Ethics Fit In?
Knowledge of ethics should be tested as well. It’s quite possible that candidates will face an ethical dilemma during their tenure on the job. They will need a framework to know what to do given the organization’s code of conduct and culture. Ethics is both an art and a skill. The skill portion is applying ethical reasoning methods to the problem at hand. These include utilitarianism, Deontological reasoning, justice/fairness, and virtue.
Candidates should be given a hypothetical situation and then asked to identify the relevant ethical issues. For example, assume you are the supervisor of a four-person team. Your team was asked to determine the best possible response to the following ethical dilemma.
“You have been informed by one member of the team that there is a team member who doesn’t contribute and you and the other team members are getting tired of it. What would you do?”
There’s always something special when you ask a question of AI and your name comes up as a reference—in the answer. I found this out in querying AI about the value of ethics education:
“Ethics education on the job is crucial for guiding behavior, reducing misconduct (like theft, lying, abuse), fostering a strong ethical culture with employee loyalty, and building public trust.” It means to move “beyond just rules to developing moral courage for implementing the ‘right thing’ even under pressure, as emphasized by sources like Ethics Sage. It helps employees recognize dilemmas, analyze principles, and act with integrity, benefiting individuals, companies, and society.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Blog posted by Steven Mintz, PhD, on January 6, 2026. Steve is a Professor Emeritus, from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is a recipient of the Accounting Exemplar Award from the Public Interest, Ethics and Sustainability Section of the American Accounting Association.