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Workforce Development
Skills-Based Hiring Isn’t Enough Without a Workforce Upskilling Strategy
I recently sat in on a panel discussion on skills-based hiring, and most of it went the way these panels usually go. A range of perspectives on how brutal the job market has gotten for candidates right now, the volume of applications, the competition, the pressure to stand out in a stack of a thousand resumes. All of it was eye-opening in the way these conversations usually are.
Then someone in the audience asked the hiring manager on the panel a simple question during Q&A: what is your organization doing to upskill your current workforce?
His answer was that they didn't have a tuition reimbursement policy. And honestly, he wasn't aware of any workforce upskilling initiatives in place at all.
Nobody in the room reacted like that was shocking. That's the part that's stuck with me since, not the hiring statistics everyone expected to hear, but how easily a company can have a hiring strategy without a clearly defined workforce upskilling strategy.
Skills-based hiring has become an increasingly important part of the conversation around recruiting. According to NACE's Job Outlook 2026 research, 70 percent of employers participating in the survey reported using skills-based hiring, up from 65 percent the previous year. NACE defines skills-based hiring as an approach in which employers align their recruitment processes with the skills needed for success, focusing on the skills candidates have rather than specifically on academic degrees or GPA.
NACE's research also shows a decline in the use of GPA as a screening tool. In 2019, 73 percent of employers screened candidates by GPA; in the Job Outlook 2026 survey, 42 percent reported doing so. The 2026 survey was conducted from August 7 through September 22, 2025, with 183 total respondents. NACE notes that results are calculated based on the number of respondents to each individual question.
The shift is part of a broader change in how some employers evaluate qualifications. IBM's description of its New Collar initiative highlights roles in which skills can matter more than traditional degrees. IBM says that around 15 percent of the new employees it hires in the United States each year have less than a traditional bachelor's degree and describes these positions as "New Collar" jobs.
But changing the language in a job posting doesn't necessarily mean the hiring process has changed with it.
Research from the Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School examined what happened after companies removed degree requirements from job postings. The study found that, on average, removing degree requirements was associated with a 3.5 percentage-point increase in the share of workers without bachelor's degrees hired into the affected roles. The researchers estimated that the resulting change represented fewer than one in 700 hires across the broader U.S. hiring market.
The study also identified substantial differences among companies. Some organizations that removed degree requirements saw meaningful changes in their hiring outcomes, while others saw little or no corresponding change. The finding suggests that changing a job requirement alone does not necessarily change how an organization evaluates or selects candidates.
That distinction matters when companies think about workforce upskilling, too. An organization can say that skills matter while still lacking a clear way for current employees to build those skills.
That's what makes the question from that panel worth considering.
Research by Wharton's Matthew Bidwell examined differences between external hires and employees who moved into similar roles through internal promotion. In the study, which analyzed personnel data from the U.S. investment banking arm of a financial services company from 2003 to 2009, employees promoted into jobs had significantly better performance during their first two years than external hires and lower rates of voluntary and involuntary exit. External hires, meanwhile, were initially paid about 18 percent more than promoted employees and had higher levels of experience and education.
You can review the underlying research in Bidwell's published study, "Paying More to Get Less: The Effects of External Hiring versus Internal Mobility", as well as Wharton's summary of the research.
Those findings don't mean that internal development is always the right answer. Organizations still need to hire externally when they don't have the skills they need internally or when a role requires experience that isn't available on the current team.
But the research provides a reason for organizations to consider internal talent before assuming that every skills gap requires a new hire.
The challenge is that hiring and employee development are often managed as separate functions. Recruiting may own the hiring process, while learning and development owns training. The opportunity in between is identifying the skills an organization needs and creating a practical path for current employees to develop them.
That becomes especially important as technology changes the skills employers need.
IBM Institute for Business Value research reports that executives surveyed estimated that 40 percent of their workforce would need to reskill because of implementing AI and automation over the following three years. IBM says that could represent approximately 1.4 billion people based on a global workforce of 3.4 billion, using World Bank statistics.
Whether the need is AI literacy, business analytics, leadership, process improvement, or another emerging capability, the underlying challenge is the same: organizations need ways to help their existing workforce keep developing.
This is where Bisk partners with universities to help organizations develop workforce upskilling pathways for their employees.
The goal isn't simply to give an employer a list of programs and call it an upskilling strategy.
A useful workforce upskilling program starts with the skills an organization needs, then connects employees with educational opportunities that can help them develop those skills.
That work spans both ends of the credential spectrum on purpose. Full degree programs, for employees seeking broader academic depth and longer-term educational development. Focused certificates, in AI and business analytics, in Lean Six Sigma, in leadership development, with a health informatics microcredential among other options for employees looking to develop a specific capability through a focused educational pathway.
The important part is having a plan.
That was the missing piece in the answer I heard at the panel. The organization wasn't necessarily unwilling to invest in its people. It simply didn't appear to have a defined pathway for doing it.
That's a solvable problem.
And it's one Bisk helps organizations address through partnerships with universities and workforce education programs.
If your organization doesn't have an answer to the workforce upskilling question yet, it's worth starting there.
Bisk partners with universities to help organizations build workforce upskilling programs around degrees, certificates, and other educational pathways based on the needs of their employees. Explore how at www.bisk.com/businesses, or schedule a conversation to talk through a workforce upskilling partnership.
