“The Evolution of Hiring: What Managers Know About, Think About and Are Doing with Microcredentials”
Researchers from CPS’s Center for Higher Education and Talent Strategy published a comprehensive study on the growing interest in micro-credentialling compared to traditional degree programs.
The study focuses on that observation that a confluence of economic, societal, and technical trends has given rise to significant changes in the hiring process. Notable among these changes has been a push to adopt skills-based practices in which hiring and talent management activity is organized around essential skills and abilities, rather than emphasizing traditional qualifications such as degrees. This focus on discretely identified skills has, in part, prompted the rise of a new way to package learning experiences: the microcredential.
Surveying 1,250 hiring managers from different industries across the nation, the study gauges their attitudes, awareness and adoption of hiring candidates with micro-credentials. The three fundamental findings from the study show that:
- Hiring managers’ primary challenge is not a lack of applicants, but rather finding the right candidates for their roles. Strategic consideration of microcredentials in hiring can help employers better match candidates to available jobs.
- Currently, most managers consider microcredentials as an indication of discipline, ambition or learning mindset. Aligning credentials to roles can help managers improve their hiring and increase their chances of finding the right candidates.
- Hiring managers who had earned a microcredential were roughly 200% more likely to hire applicants with microcredentials only; meanwhile, younger hiring managers (Gen Z) are more likely to think college degrees prepare candidates better. These personal factors are more predictive than many external factors such as industry, level of the role, or degree of remote work allowed, and suggest that companies can craft programs that change how managers think about hiring.
