New report reveals groundbreaking approach transforming the recruitment process

6 December 2022 – The leading online skills-assessment platform TestGorilla today launches its first State of Skills-Based Hiring report, with profound implications for the way employers recruit.

New data shows that skills-based hiring is not just an HR buzzword, but a revolutionary shift in recruitment that helps to create more productive and progressive employers and happier, better-performing employees. A wide-ranging international survey of 2,736 employers and 2,666 independent recruiters and hiring managers finds striking results for organizations that use skills assessments.

• 92% saw a reduction in mis-hires

• 91% saw an increase in job retention

• 91% saw an increase in workplace diversity

• 91% reduced total time-to-hire

• 89% reduced total cost-to-hire

• 72% of employees are happier at work

Outdated hiring methods are not fit for purpose in today’s globalized world, so organizations need new ways to find top talent. Skills-based hiring represents a significant departure from traditional, subjective recruitment practices, including resume screening. Of the employers we surveyed, 76% are using some form of skills-based hiring, and 54% of candidates prefer this too.

• 38% intend to increase their budget for skills-based hiring

• 54% are using some form of role-specific skills tests

• 50% – the reduction in expected voluntary attrition rate among staff recruited this way

TestGorilla is leading the way in skills-based hiring – an increasingly popular way to recruit that gives every candidate an equal chance to prove their abilities and motivation. Adopting skills-based hiring helps businesses recruit top talent and more diverse candidates, faster, easier and with less risk of bias. Studies show that job success is most strongly correlated with multi-measure assessments, whereas CVs and work experience are the weakest links.

“This report shows what we’ve known from the start: you recruit better talent when you use skills-based hiring,” says Wouter Durville, TestGorilla’s co-founder and chief executive. “Your applicant pool is much bigger if you give everyone a fair chance, and the best, most diverse talent comes out on top regardless of candidates’ backgrounds and your unconscious biases.”

The TestGorilla platform caters to this by offering organizations hundreds of pre-employment tests that enable them to tailor their candidate search to their exact requirements. Areas covered by the assessments range from quantitative skills to cognitive ability, enabling prospective employees to compete on merit rather than background.

Wouter Durville, TestGorilla’s co-founder and chief executive, says:

“This report shows what we’ve known from the start: you recruit better talent when you use skills-based hiring. That’s how we’ve hired more than 100 fantastic people across 31 countries, using our own tests. Your applicant pool is much bigger if you give everyone a fair chance, and the best, most diverse talent comes out on top regardless of candidates’ backgrounds and your unconscious biases.

“I’m convinced that a big shift is taking place from resume- and network-based to skills-based hiring. Multiple trends – increased social awareness of bias, remote work unlocking global talent pools – point toward this shift. And it’s seriously here to stay.”

Download a free copy of the report here