Organizations would be encouraged to prioritize job applicants' skills and competencies over educational requirements under recently proposed legislation.
The Advancing Skills-Based Hiring Act, introduced by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., would boost skills-based hiring by first ensuring an employer's pre-employment assessments are compliant with the law.
Specifically, the bill would support employers seeking to adopt skills-based hiring practices through technical assistance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The agency would review the validity of employment tests and selection procedures and provide a safe harbor for those employers who participate in the voluntary compliance initiative.
"The bill is designed to alleviate some of the uncertainty employers may feel about using assessments and testing for hiring," said Tony Dick, an attorney in the Cleveland office of Fisher Phillips. "The EEOC reviews your program and decides whether it is job-related and consistent with business necessity. That would be very enticing for a lot of employers, especially big employers who use these tools nationwide and don't currently have the backstop of the EEOC weighing in and letting them know their tool is compliant."
Trouble with navigating federal employment laws and regulations on the use of pre-employment assessments can prevent employers from using skills-based hiring, Stefanik said.
"The federal government should remove barriers for employers who want to use...
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