Find the Right Fit with Capability-Based Hiring

Ever been turned off from applying to a role because the job ad was so vague you weren’t sure what you’d have to do to succeed in the role? Or maybe you’re in talent acquisition and didn’t know what good performance in the role looked like, so you couldn’t ask candidates the right questions. We know what that pain is like, especially when the struggle to find the right fit increases the time to hire and leaves workforce gaps unfilled. 

What if we told you the real reason your hiring practices aren’t finding the right candidates is that you’re using a skills-focused approach? At Acorn, we’ve built our hiring decisions and talent management on a capabilities basis, and not only does it help us connect with the right talent, but it also helps us support internal mobility, too. 

What is capability-based hiring? 

Capability-based hiring is a recruitment process built on capabilities (the skills, knowledge, behaviors, processes, and tools that deliver organizational outcomes) rather than skills or credentials. Candidates are screened based on the capabilities they possess rather than past job titles or skills on their own. By focusing on capabilities, hiring managers are more likely to attract the right talent to fill roles, ensuring that organizations have a skilled workforce able to deliver business strategy. 

The gaps in traditional recruitment 

Traditional recruitment has favored a skills-based hiring process. You know what we mean. Those job descriptions in the postings that list up to ten “required skills” which end up being only a small aspect of the job as a whole. Or the list of tasks that include “perform allocated duties as required” or “varied administration that supports the business function”, with no further explanation. 

It’s not exactly useful to employers or job seekers. You’re not writing job ads just to collect a bunch of resumes, many of which aren’t even a good fit. Neither are job seekers applying for positions for the hell of it—and if ads are poorly written or misrepresent what the role is, you’re going to see an uptick in two things: 

1. Top talent being turned off by the ad and not applying, and 

2. An influx of applications from candidates who aren’t the right fit. 

We’re not saying that skills-based hiring practices make it impossible to find the right person for the job, because obviously organizations are still able to find talent. But we are saying that the process is made a lot longer, a lot harder, and a lot more time-consuming if you leave the heavy lifting to skills, tasks, or even job titles. Then you also run the risk of new hires arriving on their first day only to say “the position is different than the job description”. Or they realize they have a huge learning curve ahead of them, and that means a longer time to proficiency. It also contributes to 20% of new hire turnover within the first 45 days. 

What’s more, unclear job postings can also open the possibility of bias. That’s mainly because you don’t have any tangible or measurable criteria for hiring, meaning hiring decisions can be easily influenced by internal biases or subjective “vibes”. Capabilities, on the other hand, lay out the cold hard qualifications candidates need to succeed, and they either have them (within an acceptable development window, because all new hires need a bit of training when they onboard) or they don’t. And that goes a long way in reducing bias. 

We’re big advocates for capabilities in the hiring process because it does away with the skills-based approach, instead focusing on something more tangible and sustainable in the long term. Skills, after all, are only relevant for a few short years before employees need to start upskilling or learning new skills entirely, which means you’ll always have skills gaps to contend with as part of your hiring process. Capabilities are a more evergreen approach that job seekers can take with them to future positions as well. 

Implementing capability-based hiring in your organization 

In our experience, shifting from that skills-based focus to a capability-led one in the hiring process isn’t that hard. Sure, you’re stepping away from traditional job descriptions and towards something that’s more embedded in business strategy, but it’s actually not complicated to do. There are three simple steps to implementing capability-based hiring: 

1. Creating capability-led job descriptions 

2. Asking capability-based questions 

3. Identifying candidate potential. 

Step 1: Write clear job descriptions 

The secret sauce is in our guide to writing job descriptions that lead with capabilities, rather than writing job descriptions that have capabilities tacked on. 

Writing job ads that just list out the specific skills and tasks to be performed don’t cut it. After all, skills are encompassed by capabilities—they don’t stand on their own. And tasks should be derived from the capabilities the role needs for future success. 

That means: 

1. Understanding the strategic purpose of the role in the organization (because capabilities come from business strategy) 

2. Assigning capabilities required for the role to succeed (we recommend 2-5) 

3. Create list of tasks based on the assigned capabilities (and link them back to the capabilities for context). 

The purpose here is to make it very clearly from the get-go what your open positions are and how employees can succeed in the role. If it’s unclear, job seekers may not even apply (or you end up with candidates who aren’t a good fit for the role). 

If you’re struggling with writing a job description that incorporates capabilities effectively, we have a handy tool that can do it for you. Our Job Description Assistant uses AI to assign capabilities and desired competency levels to different roles. It’ll do it in minutes, saving you time and giving employees (and potential employees) better clarity of what the role is and what success looks like. It’s a win-win. 

Step 2: Questions, but make them capability-based 

The next step is to build out your screening questions. These should, like your task list, be derived from the role’s assigned capabilities.  

Let’s say you’re hiring for a Customer Success Manager. Maybe one of the assigned capabilities for the role is “collaboration and cross-functional alignment”. Technically, you could just ask whether candidates have any experience in the capability, but that’s a pretty broad question. Remember how we mentioned our Job Description Assistant can assign capabilities and desired competency levels? At Acorn, we structure our questions around the level of competence the role requires, not the general idea of the capability. 

So, at the desired proficient level, our Customer Success Manager might be expected to facilitate collaboration between customer support and product teams to ensure feedback gets efficiently and effectively taken on board. You wouldn’t ask “have you collaborated with other teams before?” because you’ll get a yes or no answer, but you might ask “tell me about a time you collaborated with a product team to ensure customer feedback was implemented?” because candidates can provide an example of their capability in action. 

These questions are perfect for getting a quick understanding of what candidates’ capabilities are. It’s a lot more in-depth than simply asking about skills, and means you can select more qualified candidates to bring to the interview stage. Obviously, you’re going to be asking interviewees more questions—the important thing here is to delve deeper into capabilities to narrow new talent down to the point where you can actually, you know, hire people. 

Step 3: Identify growth potential 

Being able to see your assigned capabilities does wonders for understanding what you, the employee, need to do to perform well in your role. But when it comes to understanding growth potential, that can be a little harder. At least, it can be without the help of your manager (or in this case, hiring manager). 

Making sure your hiring managers are equipped to do this is a three-parter: 

1. Train them to evaluate candidates based on capabilities, not credentials alone (the beauty of this? Good-bye, bias) 

2. Provide structured interview guides focusing on capability-based questions (like we mentioned above) 

3. Encourage them to look at candidates’ potential and adaptability. 

Here’s the thing: you’ll hire specific people for specific roles, yes. But that doesn’t mean they’ll stay in that role for their entire tenure with you. Your hiring managers can’t just be looking at candidates in terms of how they fill current gaps, because that doesn’t take future needs into account. 

The way we approach this at Acorn is by using our own platform, Capabilities. We’ve got at least five capabilities mapped to all job roles within the business (complete with assigned competency levels), and that includes new roles we’re hiring for, as well. The thing is, some capabilities assigned to certain roles cross over with other roles, too, which means with a bit of extra training, employees can move into other roles that might interest them. 

You might be asking what this has to do with hiring. Well, hiring managers can take the capabilities assigned to the role being hired for and determine what adjacent roles candidates could move into as business needs evolve. Internal mobility is crucial for a sustainable workforce. 

The whole point is that capabilities create visibility for employees’ career pathways, whether those pathways are progressing upwards into more senior roles, or laterally into adjacent roles they may prefer. 

The bottom line 

Talent acquisition needs to adopt a capability-based hiring practice, rather than focusing on skills. The reason is simple: Capabilities encompass skills to provide a framework for success in the role, and that creates clarity for employers, employees, and potential candidates alike.  

It’s a simple process to adopt, too. 

1. Base job descriptions off required capabilities, not the other way around 

2. Create screening questions based on required capabilities 

3. Hire talent based on how they rate against required capabilities. 

In our experience, capabilities are the secret to ensuring you have the right employees in the right roles from day one. If you want to know more about how you can inject new life into your hiring process, get in touch about Capabilities to see how it can be done.