As organizations continue to navigate skills gaps, AI transformation, and shifting regulatory expectations, HR teams are trying to work out how to build a more equitable and inclusive workforce … without compromising on compliance, efficiency, or business outcomes.
Many are landing on skills-based hiring as a promising solution.
Skills-based hiring is more than a Talent Acquisition trend. It represents a foundational shift in how companies define, evaluate, and grow talent. It moves organizations away from outdated educational or experience requirements and focuses on what truly matters: capability.
In doing so, it opens the door to greater diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) while also enabling more accurate workforce planning and greater agility.
Inclusion & Belonging In 2025
For many HR leaders, the past decade brought encouraging progress toward inclusive hiring. Organizations invested in programs to reduce bias, improve access for historically excluded groups, and ensure equity in promotions and pay.
But today, many of those same programs are facing headwinds. Recent political and regulatory changes – particularly in the U.S. – are pushing businesses to reassess how they frame and execute DE&I initiatives, especially those tied to federal funding.
This creates a pressing question: How can organizations maintain the benefits of inclusive hiring in ways that are data-driven, fair, and adaptable to changing conditions?
A skills-based approach that incorporates task-level analysis and real-time workforce data offers a practical path forward, helping HR teams see both current capabilities and future potential across their organization – promoting diversity and inclusion while closing skills gaps and aiding innovation.
Why Skills-Based Hiring Supports DE&I
According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Future of Recruiting report, organizations that adopt skills-based hiring practices see a near 10x increase in the size of their talent pool. By removing degree requirements and rethinking job criteria, they reach candidates who may have been excluded by traditional filters (self-taught professionals, career switchers, veterans, caregivers returning to work, and others from nontraditional backgrounds – a.k.a STARs: workers who are Skills Through Alternative Routes.)
More importantly, skills-based hiring de-emphasizes subjective indicators like school names, job titles, or employment gaps. It brings objectivity into the process, helping companies assess candidates on what they can do, not where they’ve been. This levels the playing field and removes many of the systemic barriers that prevent underrepresented talent from advancing.
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Skills-based hiring is more than a Talent Acquisition trend.