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July 31, 2024 – Future of Work

It’s about the person. Northeastern University finds microcredentials drive individualized hiring mindset

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When an employer eliminates four-year degree requirements from job descriptions, hiring managers may struggle with determining how to evaluate applicants. That difficulty could be why, as a new report by Northeastern University’s Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy points out, 65% of companies that have removed degree requirements either show no significant difference in the number of non-degree holders they have hired, or a decrease.

Better understanding the multitude of experiences and learning opportunities that can prepare a person for a job may help hiring managers evaluate candidates from varying backgrounds.

Northeastern University’s researchers examined one such option: microcredentials. Supported by the Charles Koch Foundation, the report outlines barriers to skills- and aptitude-based hiring and aims to help employers shift their thinking about important tools like microcredentials.

Hiring managers may misunderstand the value of microcredentials

The report examines perceptions about microcredentials through the lens of hiring managers, or the talent “gatekeepers” who could be “significant catalysts for change.” 

These managers say their top challenge is not the quantity of the applicants they get; it is the quality. Specifically, 59% of hiring managers feel like they cannot source quality talent using current approaches to hiring.

For these managers, microcredentials do not yet confer much information about quality, however. In fact, while hiring managers certainly are aware of microcredentials, they “appear to value them more as a sign of a candidate’s ambition, discipline, or learning mindset rather than a measure of specific skill competence.” 

For managers to gain confidence, a company’s leadership must do three things:

  • Recognize managers’ pain is about optimizing hiring, not sourcing talent; 
  • Clearly identify which microcredentials align with company needs; and
  • Ensure professional development investments include support for microcredentials.

Personal experience with microcredentials leads to greater openness

The person within an organization who writes and approves job postings first must ask themselves whether a candidate needs a degree and, if they do not, what experiences, aptitudes, or skills a candidate might need. This first step will open human resources teams’ minds to both degree and non-degree holders, as will actual experience with a diverse array of learning pathways.

Once hiring managers have had personal experience with microcredentials, they are more open to hiring candidates who do not have four-year degrees, Northeastern University’s researchers found. For example, the researchers found hiring managers are more likely to hire non-degree candidates when their companies have invested in professional development, particularly tuition support for microcredentials. The researchers also found having a microcredential more than doubled the likelihood a hiring manager would hire a candidate with one.

Understanding what microcredentials are and how to use them has an added benefit — it may open hiring managers to a more individualized way of evaluating both current skills and potential.

As one hiring manager told Northeastern University’s researchers, “I have come to the conclusion it doesn’t matter if you have a four-year degree or you just have a high school diploma. It’s all about the knowledge of the person.”