Carol T. Kulik & Elissa L. Perry

In The News 

Activity 3.2 

Skills-Based Hiring

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Skills-based hiring is a strategy in which employers expand their applicant pools by systematically removing academic degrees and other credentials from their hiring criteria. As the number of people earning college degrees is declining, organizations that rely heavily on academic credentials face a shrinking labor market. The Burning Glass Institute has long advocated skills-based hiring as a strategy for giving more people access to meaningful work. However, a report they issued in 2024 indicates that even when employers publicly commit to skills-based hiring, they continue to favor applicants with college degrees. In the resources for this activity, we’ve provided links to both the report and several news articles discussing its findings.

In this activity, students work in small groups to discuss the implications of an employer’s decision to adopt skills-based hiring for one of these roles: computer programmer, event planner, payroll clerk, or salesperson. Burning Glass describes these roles as “low hanging fruit” for skills-based hiring. Students should first read the Burning Glass report and media reactions to it. Then they can research their assigned role to learn more about its required skills.

Importantly, this activity is not about debating the value of skills-based hiring. Students should assume that their employer has already identified their assigned role as one that needs a wider applicant pool, and has already made the decision to adopt skills-based hiring. The students’ assignment is to generate a series of practical recommendations that will increase the likelihood that the employer’s decision will actually result in more hires without college degrees.
This activity is an opportunity for students to reflect on organizational hiring as a process, linking Chapters 2 (Recruiting Employees), 3 (Hiring Employees), and 4 (Interviewing Employees). Successfully implementing skills-based hiring requires careful consideration at each stage: designing a job description, identifying recruitment channels, choosing selection tools, developing interview questions, and – perhaps most importantly – generating managerial buy-in. Instructors may choose to have student teams present their recommendations in class, to identify the commonalities across teams, and the differences that emerge as a function of role. 

Skills-based hiring:
Newton, D. (2024, February 25). It’s no surprise that ‘skills-based’ hiring has not worked. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2024/02/25/its-no-surprise-that-skills-based-hiring-has-not-worked/?sh=54a20b83f0e0 
Schmidt, J., & Bourdage, J. (2024, January 19). Employers should use skill-based hiring to find hidden talent and address labour challenges. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/employers-should-use-skill-based-hiring-to-find-hidden-talent-and-address-labour-challenges-220527  
The Burning Glass Institute. (2024, February 14). Skills-based hiring: The long road from pronouncements to practice [Report]. https://www.burningglassinstitute.org/research/skills-based-hiring-2024 
Weber, L. (2024, February 16). 62% of Americans lack a college degree. Can they solve the labor shortage? The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/employers-open-more-doors-to-workers-without-degrees-but-few-are-getting-in-732f1098 
Wildavsky, B. (2023, August 21). Let’s stop pretending college degrees don’t matter. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/opinion/skills-based-hiring-college-degree-job-market-wage-premium.html

In The News 

Activity 6.1 

Supporting Organizational Training

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In Chapter 6 (Training and Developing Employees), we highlight the many ways that line managers make organizational training more effective. This activity is designed to help students recognize opportunities to influence training effectiveness through their behaviors before and after training. The activity invites students to step into a time machine and play the role of a manager in a 2018 Starbucks café.

Back in April 2018, two Black men were handcuffed and arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. A customer video of the incident was posted online, amid rising criticism of the way Starbucks staff (“partners” in Starbucks lingo) treats Black patrons. In response, Starbucks closed more than 8,000 stores for an afternoon and delivered mandatory anti-bias training to nearly 175,000 partners. The strategy generated a great deal of attention in the press. While some people applauded Starbucks for taking large-scale action, others questioned whether an afternoon of training would have any long-run impact.

The activity should proceed in two stages, and we’ve included some resources below. In the first stage, instructors will share the “before” articles and ask students what actions they would take, as a Starbuck café manager, to support the training. Because the training is mandatory, the manager doesn’t need to decide who should attend the training. But the manager does need to motivate employee engagement with the training through their own words and actions. Instructors should ask students to develop a “frame” that they will use to communicate Starbucks’ training initiative to their staff and generate a list of behaviors they will enact to support employees before training. Importantly, the anti-bias training was being newly developed for Starbucks, so the “before” articles provide little detail about the training content. Instructors should emphasize that managers are often placed in situations where they need to link initiatives to their company’s mission and strategic priorities before they’ve experienced the initiatives themselves.

In the second stage, instructors will share the “after” articles and ask students what actions they would take, still wearing their line manager hat, to support transfer of training when staff return to the café. The “after” articles provide detail about the training content, so students can generate links between the training and day to day staff behavior. For example, students can find opportunities to reward staff for using the training, provide opportunities to practice the training, deliver feedback on trained behavior, and engage in long-term follow up on the training. The more specific students are about the “how” of these behaviors, the better.

This activity is itself a training initiative. Therefore, instructors could close the activity with a meta-level discussion on how the students can transfer this training to future challenges in the workplace. The Starbucks case is only one specific example; organizations regularly adopt mandatory training on a range of topics and leave it to line managers to implement. Students should reflect on the skills they developed in framing and supporting training. Instructors can return to this activity later, in relation to Chapter 11 (Creating an Inclusive Workplace), to consider the role that organizational training (and managers’ support for it) plays in inclusion.

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Anti-bias training at Starbucks (before):
Abrams, R. (2018, April 17). Starbucks to close 8,000 U.S. stores for racial-bias training after arrests. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/business/starbucks-arrests-racial-bias.html
Calfas, J. (2018, May 28). Starbucks is closing all its U.S. stores for diversity training day. Experts say that’s not enough. Time. https://time.com/5287082/corporate-diversity-training-starbucks-results/ 
Jargon, J., & Weber, L. (2018, April 17). Starbucks to shut stores for antibias training. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/starbucks-plans-racial-bias-training-for-employees-at-u-s-stores-1523993353 
Starbucks.com. (2018, April 17). Starbucks to close all stores nationwide for racial-bias education on May 29. https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-to-close-stores-nationwide-for-racial-bias-education-may-29/ 

 

Anti-bias training at Starbucks (after):
Abrams, R., Hsu, T., & Eligon, J. (2018, May 29). Starbucks’s tall order: Tackle systemic racism in 4 hours. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/business/starbucks-closing-racial-bias-training.html 
Dalhstrom, L. (2018, July 2). Beyond May 29: Lessons from Starbucks anti-bias training — and what’s next. Starbucks.com. https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/beyond-may-29-lessons-from-starbucks-anti-bias-training-and-whats-next/ 
Jargon, J., & Feintzeig, R. (2018, May 31). Starbucks racial bias training ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘enlightening’: Employees react. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/starbucks-racial-bias-training-uncomfortable-and-enlightening-employees-react-1527807677 
Whitten, S. (2018, May 29). Starbucks baristas find anti-bias training has a limited scope but is a good start. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/29/starbucks-baristas-find-anti-bias-training-has-a-limited-scope-but-is-a-good-start.html