A growing number of employers are shifting from traditional resume-based hiring, with 59% of companies adopting a skill-first approach, a 26% jump from last year, driven largely by AI tools that enable large-scale skill assessments, a report said on Wednesday.
Around 59% companies are following a skill-first hiring approach, marking a 26% increase over last year and a 78% rise since 2022, according to a Skill-First Hiring Report by Equip, an AI-powered skill assessment platform.
This surge has been largely driven by AI tools that make it easier to evaluate real-world skills at scale, replacing traditional resume-based screening, it added.
"The shift to skill-first hiring marks a turning point in how organisations identify and nurture talent. By combining AI with real-world skill validation, companies are moving from credential-based to merit-based hiring. This enables faster hiring, stronger retention, and more objective team building," Equip Founder and CEO Jayanth Neelakanta said.
The findings are based on responses from over 1,700 recruiters and hiring managers and data covering 2,50,000 candidate assessments across 600 organisations.
The report further revealed that mis-hire rates (hiring manager assessments of whether a new hire was a poor fit for the role) has dropped 50%.
Not all mis-hires result in departures as some employees remain with the company despite being assessed as misaligned with role requirements, it added.
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