Report Warns Firms Risk Falling Behind by Valuing Degrees Over Skills

A new report calls on leaders to put a stronger focus on the capabilities—not credentials—of their job candidates. This comes as AI is transforming work, critical industries continue facing talent shortages, and many workforce skills are quickly growing obsolete.

The Conference Board produced the study in collaboration with OneTen, a nonprofit organization working to unlock career opportunities for talent without four-year degrees. It underscores that a “skills-first” approach—one which prioritizes assessing candidates’ skills and abilities first over traditional hiring criteria—expands talent pipelines and opportunity. But it must be treated as a full-scale enterprise transformation rather than just an HR project.

“Roughly 62% of Americans lack a four-year degree. By focusing on skills rather than credentials, organizations can gain a competitive edge, all while opening the door to a far broader range of capable talent,” said Allan Schweyer, Principal Researcher, Human Capital, The Conference Board.

The findings come from a recent roundtable, led by executives from The Conference Board and OneTen for HR leaders, focused on embedding skills-first practices across the enterprise. Key findings include:

Skills-first must be treated as an enterprise transformation.

• Secure visible CEO sponsorship and cross-functional alignment on goals and measures.
• Anchor the approach in leadership, culture, and governance—not as an HR program.
• Position skills-first as part of overall business and talent strategy, not a parallel initiative.

“A skills-first approach can’t live in a single department—it has to be championed from the top,” said Debbie Dyson, CEO of OneTen. “When CEOs and C-suite leaders embed skills-first thinking into the fabric of how the business operates, it becomes sustainable, scalable, and transformative.”

Start small to go fast.

• Pilot one to three roles where hiring is slow or quality is low, mapping those roles to specific, measurable skills and outcomes and rewriting job descriptions with skills up front.
• Demonstrate early wins—such as faster hiring and improved onboarding—to build momentum.

Equip the system with technology and clear taxonomies.

• Use AI-powered tools and human review for skill inference, validation, and assessment.
• Keep taxonomies practical and regularly refreshed; avoid complexity that hinders use.
• Hold vendors accountable for accuracy, bias mitigation, and results.

Build momentum through managers and measurement.

• Train managers to conduct skills-based interviews and coach to defined capabilities.
• Measure business outcomes such as time to hire, quality of hire, early productivity, retention at 6–12 months, engagement, and internal mobility.
• Highlight quick wins and recognize managers who drive results.

Establish disciplined governance and continuous improvement.

• Treat the process as multi-year and iterative, extending from hiring to workforce planning and compensation.
• Form a cross-functional steering group with HR, finance, and business representation.
• Establish data privacy, fairness, and audit practices from day one.
• Review and refine measures at 90- and 180-day checkpoints to sustain progress.