Have you ever read a job ad and felt like they were looking for a magical unicorn with 150 years of experience at healing lepers just to sweep the floors? With AI readily available to screen 99.9% of job applicants out of every job, it's pretty common nowadays. But good news, Michigan - things may be changing for the better due to a new hiring approach based on what people can actually do!
Here are Five Fast Facts on Michigan's skills-based hiring push:
- 📝 The Directive - Gov. Whitmer recently signed an executive order directing state departments and agencies to use a "skills-based" hiring approach to recruiting and job placement. This means what folks can do matters more than what a piece of paper says they can do.
- 💪 The Motivation - The goal is to help more Michiganders with "non-traditional" backgrounds get good-paying jobs and create a more resilient, versatile workforce. If you're a Swiss Army Knife kinda worker, this could be very good for you!
- 😀 Use Your Words - One of the changes will be to modernize and streamline language and descriptions so job ads will be more focused on the actual skills needed rather than titles, degrees, or other things that might not actually matter. Good news, you won't need a degree to run a cash register!
- 🤝 Show Not Tell - Along with the clarity, state hiring will be enhanced to create processes that allow applicants to more easily show their relevant skills when applying. Hopefully that means fewer cognitive reasoning assessments and more "just show me" conversations!
- 👀 Keep It Going - To lock in the long term benefit, state departments and agencies will also regularly review and update their hiring practices to stay focused on the skills-based strategy. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
🔥Bottom line: Time will tell, but this new plan could be a big win for anyone who has ever stared at a government website job ad and felt their brain slowly turn into mashed potatoes while asking, "WHY?!" By requiring state hiring practices across the board to focus on what is actually needed to do a job, Michigan is trying to make good jobs more accessible, even for those who might not have the right piece of paper in their background.
What do you think of this policy change?
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