The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2022
Explore TestGorilla’s annual thought-leadership report
Extraordinary outcomes for companies
Our data shows that companies using skills-based hiring are experiencing dramatic improvements in performance across five key metrics:
of organizations saw a reduction in cost-to-hire
of organizations saw a reduction in time-to-hire
of organizations saw a reduction in mis-hires
of organizations saw an increase in retention
of organizations saw an increase in diversity
What our respondents told us:
Paul Musters
Founder
Emaho, Netherlands
Skills-based hiring saves you time and, even more importantly, it saves you headspace.
Emma McFetridge
Talent acquisition partner
Barzaarvoice, Northern Ireland
Employees are staying with us for longer, and it’s more efficient because we’re doing fewer interviews to decipher their overall skill set.
Achyut Menon
Managing director
Options Executive Search, India
Today, it's a no-brainer. You just can’t get people without checking their skills.
Jacco Valkenburg
Trainer employer branding and recruitment
Recruiter University, Netherlands
Online assignments test an applicant’s skills and capabilities, so a traditional resume and cover letter are no longer needed.
Hung Lee
Curator
Recruiting Brainfood, UK
We need to be conscious of the new challenges around diversity that come from hiring remote workers.
Segun Mustapha
People and culture officer
Suntory Beverages and Food Nigeria, Nigeria
We didn’t have women on our production lines. We used skills-based hiring to eliminate criteria and hired seven women and five men.
Max Armbruster
Founder and chief executive
Talkpush, Hong Kong
Skills-based hiring enables us to expand the talent pool and consider a broader, wider range of talent.
Rashid Lansah
Candidate
I’d prefer to apply and work for employers that use skills-based assessments. I’d be valued for what I can do, with limitless opportunities for growth.
Nicole Roberts
Senior vice-president of people
Forta
If you’re looking to actually match that person’s work style, and bring them in as they are, skills-based hiring can definitely help.
Matt Alder
Producer and host of The Recruiting Future podcast
Back when the internet first started transforming recruiting, we thought CVs would be the first thing to go.
Ellena Bartolini
Candidate
In a world that’s constantly changing, it is key to be able to move around between companies and roles. I don’t want to be put in a box.
Sara Sremcevic-Brown
Candidate
A piece of paper can never show whether a candidate is suitable for a certain role.
Kuba Garstka
Candidate
I was lucky to find a place that assessed my attitude and knowledge, not my background. Many bright people never get this chance.
We surveyed
employers
employees
industries
Our data shows that companies using skills-based hiring are experiencing dramatic improvements in performance across five key metrics.
What is skills-based hiring?
Skills-based hiring is a recruitment methodology whereby job candidates are hired for open roles based on quantifiable skills, rather than using subjective methods, such as resumes.
Attracting and retaining world-class talent
People who are recruited using skills-based hiring are happier in their job roles than those who are not. 72.1% of those hired using skills-based hiring were either happy or very happy in their current role, compared to 62.9% of those recruited via other methods.
People who are recruited via skills-based hiring stay longer in their roles. Only 3.2% of employees recruited using skills-based hiring, plan to leave their roles in the next 12 months, compared with 7.3% of employees who were not recruited via skills-based hiring.
of people hired via skills-based hiring report being happy in their role
of people hired via skills-based hiring plan to leave their role within 12 months
Our partners
Barzaarvoice
Emma McFetridge
Talent acquisition partner
CapitalT
Eva De Mol
Co-founder
Emaho
Paul Musters
Founder
Options Executive Search
Achyut Menon
Managing director
Recruiter University
Jacco Valkenburg
Trainer employer branding and recruitment
Recruiting Brainfood
Hung Lee
Curator
Sintory Beverages and Food Nigeria
Segun Mustapha
People and culture officer
Forta
Nicole Roberts
Senior vice-president of people
The Recruiting Future Podcast
Matt Alder
Producer and host
TalentMapper
Marcel Rietveld
Chief executive and co-founder
Marketing Sumo
Adrian Tan
Chief marketing strategist
Klaviyo
Paul Abercrombie
Director of talent (EMEA)
Ellena Bartolini
Kuba Garstka
Rashid Lansah
Sara Sremcevic-Brown
The future of skills-based hiring
Skills-based hiring is a growing trend that shows no signs of abating, with 53.4% of respondents believing it will be the dominant hiring method in the future. Stay ahead of the curve by reading all the insights from our annual report.