Hiring is changing—fast. Degree requirements and “perfect resume” checklists are shrinking your candidate pipeline, slowing hiring, and screening out strong talent that can do the job. Meanwhile, organizations that recruit based on skills and demonstrated competencies are moving quicker, improving quality of hire, and building teams that adapt faster to change.

This is the skills-first advantage—and it’s becoming a measurable competitive edge. In this practical, 60-minute webinar, Melveen Stevenson will show you how to shift from traditional, credential-heavy hiring to a skills-based approach that expands your talent pool, reduces bias, strengthens diversity, and improves retention.

And it doesn’t stop at recruiting. You’ll also learn how to apply skills-first thinking across the full employee lifecycle—onboarding, training, internal mobility, and career development—so you can build an agile workforce with clear pathways for growth and advancement. You’ll explore how employers are tying skills strategy to workforce development funding opportunities, including government incentives and grants, to reduce costs while accelerating upskilling.

Whether you lead talent acquisition, HR, L&D, or a functional team, this session delivers the tools and real-world examples you need to modernize your approach—and build a workforce ready for what’s next.

Areas Covered During the Training

You’ll learn:

• How skills-based hiring expands your talent pool and improves retention
• The key differences between traditional recruiting and skills-first models
• How to reduce bias and create more equitable hiring practices
• The financial upside—time, cost, turnover reduction—and workforce funding opportunities (including incentives/grants)
• How to apply skills-first strategies to onboarding, training, and career development
• How to build agile teams with structured advancement and internal mobility pathways

Your Benefits for Attending

You will walk away with:

• Practical steps to shift job requirements from credentials to capabilities
• Tools to evaluate candidates more consistently using skills-based criteria
• Strategies to improve diversity outcomes and reduce unintended screening bias
• A framework for connecting skills to training, performance, and career growth
• Ideas for leveraging external workforce development funding to support upskilling
• A clear roadmap to build a future-ready workforce that grows from within