RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Smooth sailing

Gone are the days when hiring decisions were made based on college education and previous experience alone.

Skills-based hiring, or hiring that evaluates candidates based on competencies and skills, has taken off: 70% of employers consider skills more effective when evaluating candidates than résumés, according to a report from pre-employment assessment platform Test Gorilla. Not only can it widen HR’s talent pool, it can also help recruiters fill roles faster, Forbes reported.

One company that uses skills-based hiring is Oasis Marinas. Using this approach, the Annapolis, Maryland-based marina management company filled 90% of its open leadership roles in 2023 with internal employees, according to CHRO Evelyn Costa.

Oasis Marinas operates 50 marinas in over seven states and employs roughly 450 workers. Its workforce can, however, balloon to nearly 700 during peak boating season from May to September. Roughly 60 of its employees work in corporate functions, like accounting, marketing, and IT.

Keep reading.—MC

PRESENTED BY PYN

It’s all about the (employee) journey

Every employee’s experience comes down to their individual journey. The question on every HR pro’s mind is: Was that journey superb, subpar, or something in between?

With Pyn’s free Employee Journey Designer, investing in the employee experience and avoiding guesswork becomes a whole lot simpler. With it, you can:

• Create your own employee journey map using Pyn’s library of moments that matter.
• Prioritize specific work across the journey and assign ownership.
• Invite team members to collab and share your map.

Insert your own moments + properties and save views. Pyn’s Employee Journey Designer isn’t just customizable—it’s also the start of something exciting for your entire org.

Start designing yours.

HR STRATEGY

Moving on

What do a life insurance company, a pet store, and a rideshare platform have in common? They’ve all announced new HR hires since the start of 2024. Let’s take a look at these and other recent appointments.

Bumble. This week, the dating app announced multiple new leadership hires as part of a new growth strategy, including David Ard as CPO. Ard, who will lead Bumble’s hiring strategies and company culture efforts, spent the majority of his decades in HR at Gap, and was most recently SVP of employee success at Slack.

Disney Experiences. Janice Underwood, who previously led diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts for the Office of Personnel Management, joined Disney Experiences as its VP of DE&I in January, the company said in a LinkedIn post. She’s responsible for managing all diversity and outreach practices for Disney’s parks and resorts, among other experiences.

Gap. Mattel’s former CPO, Amy Thompson, was named Gap’s new CPO in January, according to a press release. Thompson has 25 years of experience in HR, and previously worked at Toms, Starbucks, and Ticketmaster.

Keep reading.—KP

WORLD OF HR

Going global

HR pros may soon have a better understanding of what disability inclusion looks like in different countries, thanks to a recently expanded benchmarking index.

Where in the world? Disability:IN, the organization behind the Disability Equality Index (DEI), an annual report examining the best companies for disability inclusion, has previously only looked at US-based operations. Now in its tenth year, the DEI, which looks at how companies recruit, retain, accommodate, and include disabled workers, is accepting submissions from employers in seven new countries: Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, the Philippines, and the UK, according to a January announcement.

The organization made this decision after two years of research and conversations with almost 100 companies in 66 countries, according to Jill Houghton, president and CEO of Disability:IN. “One of the things that was most important to us…was to focus on ensuring that we were asking questions that were culturally competent,” Houghton told HR Brew.

Keep reading.—KP

TOGETHER WITH CAREERBUILDER

Welcome home, AI. AI’s a rising star, and HR is along for the ride. Recruiters report that AI improves the quality of hires and streamlines recruitment. We partnered with CareerBuilder to dig into how AI is changing the HR landscape for the better. Read on.

WORK PERKS