Resumes are the basis of the hiring ecosystem. In the past, these documents were job-seekers’ only chance to share their qualifications, and recruiters’ main tool for assessing their compatibility. 

We’ve relied on resumes for decades — but in that time, the labour market has shifted dramatically. Why hasn’t how we get to know candidates shifted, too?  

Actually, things are changing. In a digital-first world and an incredibly tight labour market, resumes simply aren’t as useful as they once were. In fact, some experts think that resumes are on the way out. Instead, we’ll see a more nuanced, skills-based understanding of people and what they can do.  

Potential over experience  

Resumes are basically a list of work history. Where and when did a candidate work, and what was their job title?  

Obviously, past experience is important. But it’s simply not as relevant when hiring as we’d like to think. In fact, what someone’s done before is one of the weakest predictors of their success in a new role.  

Today, the tools and technology we need to get work done are always changing. To keep up, workers must embrace constant learning, which makes upskilling, reskilling and development increasingly important.  

In this context, a laundry list of someone’s past roles and duties feels less useful. What really matters is the skills they gained, and what they could use those skills to do in the future.  

Digital-first hiring 

How we find new hires has changed, too. In 2022, digital recruiting is recruiting, and resumes are a holdover from the pre-digital hiring days. Resumes don’t suit the needs of freelancers and gig workers. This new kind of worker makes up an ever-larger portion of the labour market.  

Increasingly, recruiters are using a more active, outbound approach, casting wide nets and actively seeking out candidates on platforms like LinkedIn. In this context, recruiting is about selling candidates on why they should consider the role. Managers are no longer sifting through dozens of resumes seeking the cream of the crop.  

But what hasn’t shifted is the importance of hiring the best. Human capital is the most important predictor of companies’ success. Before anything else, the skill, talent and drive of an organization’s people has the largest impact on its business performance.  

The Great Reshuffle and rise of remote work have also given workers more options than ever. There’s so much competition for talent, and the stakes are higher than ever. Recruiters and hiring managers can’t afford to use inefficient, dated methods like resumes to assess new hires. Understanding people by their former jobs is reductive, limiting and doesn’t give a true sense of what they can do.  

Skills are what matters 

Savvy companies know that hiring great people isn’t about work history anymore. Skills matter more today, especially ones that might be transferable, or that might give the applicant an edge in learning something new. 

Building a resilient, agile, future-proofed workforce is about people’s skills and capabilities -- not just the ones they possess now, but the ones they have the potential to develop through upskilling and reskilling. Wasting that potential not only harms people, it holds companies back from evolving and innovating.  

That’s why some companies are moving past the traditional resume and using artificial intelligence (AI) or other advanced solutions to better understand candidates’ skills. Of course, technology isn’t a magical spell. In some cases, including famously at Amazon, AI tools have exacerbated biases, replicating inequalities in the data they were trained on.  

Many exciting new tools are aiming to bring hiring into the modern age. Scoutible uses gamification to understand applicants’ unique strengths and weaknesses. Headstart uses AI to screen candidates more quickly — and with less bias — than a human recruiter ever could.  Others, like Turing, serve the exploding freelance market, helping companies find perfect-fit contractors quickly and easily.  

A skills-first future 

A skills-based approach to hiring is all about making the most of human potential.  

Adopting new digital tools, and abandoning familiar ones like the resume, might feel overwhelming or confusing at first. But the goal is actually to make hiring faster and more efficient — to match people to jobs and companies where they’ll find fulfillment growth and satisfaction.  

LC Extension has plenty of resources to help your team navigate the new world of hiring. We have the solutions you need to develop the skills and strategic knowledge it will take to thrive in today’s highly competitive, constantly evolving labour market.  

Learn more about our offerings today.