As defined by Jobs for the Future, refers to organizing all talent acquisition and talent development activities around objectively defined skills. This is a departure from reliance on proxy signals of skills, such as four-year college degree requirements, number of years of experience, or job titles in a candidate’s career history.

Examples of skills-based talent practices:

• Rewriting job descriptions to focus on required skills and eliminating unnecessary degree requirements
• Partnering with local community colleges or training programs to access new employees who have completed specific types of training
• Requiring managers to consider internal talent for new roles before posting jobs externally
• Providing managers and employees with information about possible career paths, the skills those paths require, and resources to develop those skills