WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2023

The practices that are rarely selected by respondents warrant further consideration:

respondents may be sceptical of such measures’ feasibility, or they may not recognize the potential

links between the following measures and talent availability. Increasing worker representation

is only selected by 1.4% of the companies surveyed. Childcare for working parents is ranked

the second-lowest, except in countries such as Serbia and Finland, which see a greater need to

supplement childcare.

Despite the emphasis on skills in organizations’ workforce strategy and practices, only 7%

of respondents agree that removing degree requirements and conducting skill-based hiring is

linked to increasing talent availability. The following section explores in detail how companies assess

skills when hiring.

Evaluation of work experience 71.3%

Proprietary skill assessments 46.9%

Completion of a university degree 44.9%

Psychometric profiling 27.0%

Completion of short courses and online certificates 19.9%

Completion of apprenticeships 19.5%

Outsourcing to staffing firms 8.3%

We do not assess skills 5.0%

FIGURE 5.5 Skills assessment mechanisms

Source
World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Survey 2023.

Share of organizations surveyed which will prioritize the following ways to assess skills when hiring

Assessing skills when hiring

Figure 5.5 shows that the evaluation of work experience remains by far the top skills-assessment

mechanism used when business hire workers. This factor is used by 71% of businesses. Only 5% of

surveyed companies do not assess the skills of prospective employees – and more companies

now report using skill assessments (47%) than the completion of a university degree (45%) to select

candidates. Twenty-seven percent of companies report employing psychometric testing.

Although, currently, only 20% of companies consider the completion of short courses and

online certificates as one of their top-three skills assessment criteria, such “microcredentials”

(such as short courses and online certificates) have the potential to accelerate skills-based talent

management and open new pipelines of talent. The flexibility they offer learners opens possibilities,

for example, for learners with lower incomes, learners who are seeking to return to the labour

market while undertaking family responsibilities, and older learners who do not wish to enter full-

time education. Furthermore, results presented in

Chapter 4 suggest that encouraging the completion of such credentials by increasing their consideration

when hiring has the potential to open up new talent pipelines, as the time required to complete

these courses does not depend on a learner’s level of formal education (see Figure Box 4.1). The

Republic of Korea and Switzerland consider the completion of short courses and online certificates

at a rate of less than 5%, compared to more than twice the global average of 19% in Pakistan (41%)

and Finland (40%). The fraction of employers who consider microcredentials may indeed be expected

to increase, given that 82% of companies plan to adopt education and workforce development

technologies in the next five years (see Chapter 2).

Nineteen percent of companies consider completion of apprenticeships as a top-three

criteria, ahead of outsourcing to staffing firms, at 9%. The prevalence of apprenticeships

as a mainstream route to employment varies geographically, ranging from consideration by less

than 5% of companies in the Republic of Korea and the Netherlands to more than half of surveyed

companies in Austria. Egypt and Colombia also consider apprenticeships at more than twice the

global average rate (19%).

Future of Jobs Report 2023 54