Skills-Based Hiring: The Key to Organisational Resilience

In today’s unpredictable environment, organisational resilience has become a strategic imperative. Businesses are navigating economic uncertainty, rapid tech disruption, evolving workforce expectations and an increasingly mobile talent market.

At Miles Advisory, we work with leaders across sectors who are recognising a powerful, often underleveraged lever: how they hire. More specifically, shifting from credential-based hiring to skills-based hiring. And the organisations embracing this shift are becoming more agile, more diverse, and more resilient in the face of disruption.

Traditional hiring often revolves around job titles, tenure, and formal qualifications. But these proxies don’t always predict performance or potential, especially in fast-changing industries. What matters more today is what people can do, not just where they’ve been.

• 75% of hiring managers say they are now more focused on skills than degrees when evaluating candidates.
• Organisations that adopt skills-first hiring see up to 60% greater talent mobility, allowing them to fill roles faster using internal candidates.
• Companies using a skills-based approach are 2.5x more likely to retain top performers.

This shift isn’t just good practice – it’s a resilience strategy.

Organisational resilience isn’t just about managing risk, it’s about building capability and adaptability into your workforce design. When companies hire for skills, they:

• Increase agility: Skilled, versatile employees can pivot across roles and respond to emerging business needs.
• Reduce talent gaps: Broader candidate pools and internal upskilling reduce the need for external hires and costly delays.
• Improve inclusion: Removing unnecessary degree requirements opens doors for capable people who were historically overlooked.
• Enable growth during disruption: Teams built on capability rather than rigid roles can evolve alongside the business.

In a recent study by Deloitte, companies that align workforce planning with skills rather than jobs are 52% more likely to anticipate and respond effectively to change.

If your organisation wants to become more resilient through talent, here are a few actions to consider:

1. Audit your current roles – Where are the most in-demand or hard-to-fill skills? Are there opportunities to redeploy internal
talent?
2. Rethink your job descriptions – Strip out legacy criteria (e.g.,“10+ years in X”) in favour of clear, measurable skills.
3. Invest in skills intelligence – Use tools or frameworks to map existing skills, identify gaps, and build internal pathways.
4. Reward adaptability – Celebrate employees who grow into new roles or take on stretch opportunities, they’re your future leaders.

The Bottom Line

Emma Jones, Head of Client Services, People and Culture Practice:

“In a world that won’t stop changing, organisations that focus on hiring, developing, and retaining skills – not just titles – will have the edge.

It’s not just about resilience in a crisis. It’s about building a culture that can thrive through whatever comes next.

If you’re thinking about evolving your workforce strategy, we’d love to support the journey.”