While innovation makes our world better, the benefits are often uneven. The OECD determined one third of jobs worldwide are at risk of radical transformation by technology in the next decade.Hiring requirements are changing rapidly, and nearly two thirds of employers already see a skills gap in their companies. This widening gap threatens to leave some of us behind. Morphing economic and technical landscapes are igniting international interest in the advantages and equity impacts of human capital management. Many employers are exploring skills-based hiring and advancement to close the skills gap, increase the diversity of their workforces, and expand access for all to the opportunities of the future.

Skills-Based Hiring and Advancement (SBHA) is the process by which employers and their HR service providers identify, recruit, hire, and advance candidates based on the match between a work opportunity’s skill requirements and a candidate’s skills. SBHA processes produce well-crafted and debiased job requirements and trustworthy candidate information backed by evidence. This candidate information is communicated through new types of resumes and learning and employment records (LERs) that embed proof of their accuracy to accelerate verification. SBHA reduces reliance on indirect indicators of skills (e.g.,four-year college degrees, years of experience) that traditionally do not provide evidence of specific skills and can create barriers for candidates qualified through alternative means (e.g. microcredentials, life experiences, and endorsements). Candidates also benefit by using skills-powered guidance services and technologies which recommend opportunities, support decision making, and provide fairer hiring and advancement experiences.

This report is the product of that project, developing aspirational use cases to align leading employer practices in skills-based hiring and advancement that have the potential to achieve results for both employers and job candidates based on a balanced set of success metrics. This project includes aspirational learner/worker-centered use cases that empower them to use innovative developments in resumes, profiles, learning and employment records, and guidance services. These future-oriented use cases take both the employer and candidate perspectives and identify likely failure points in implementation and scaling, including employer and candidate capacity, time and resource commitments, and the state of available data, technology and standards.