In a surprising change of events, Amazon is no longer contemplating bringing its $2.5 billion campus to Long Island City, New York, after receiving public and political backlash. Just because a city has a long history as a hub for new and expanding companies doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for everyone. You don’t have to be New York City to attract Amazon-caliber talent. Based on the skills companies are hiring for in the future, a pipeline of talent can be developed and found in any part of the country. As the working world changes every day, the spectrum of talent will no longer be just in big cities—it is now clear that future employees can be based anywhere from rural Texas through the Dakotas.
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Reinventing Hiring Framework
As companies search for cheaper talent in different markets, they must look at their hiring practices and reevaluate the skills and qualifications required for the position. They may find that the position does not require that a candidate have a 4-year degree but someone, for example, with a 2-year degree and relevant professional experience or technical abilities.
To fill gaps in vacant positions in technology, energy, manufacturing, and other expanding industries, a focus on skills over degrees opens doors and exposes you to a wider pool of viable candidates. Through skills-based hiring, you can cultivate a mind-set of finding the right person for the right job, regardless of degree.
Empowering Workforces
A skills-based mind-set benefits a company beyond the hiring process. Today’s economy requires “blue-collar” employees to learn a vast amount of advanced technical knowledge that can be taught in the hands-on, fast-paced environment of a community college or internal employee advancement program.
As organizations continue to demonstrate their commitment to finding the right person for the right job, regardless of degree, other companies will follow suit and explore what it takes to build strong workforces of their own. Beyond the effects on productivity, this model can also bring efficiency and stability to the hiring process—making HR’s life easier, as well. Improvements in hiring and employee tracking technology also make it easier to identify and pinpoint the candidates with the specific skills pertinent to the position in question. In less than a decade, we might start to see the traditional method of recruiting and hiring radically shift to this model of skills first.
Centers of Excellence
Amazon was not the first company to look for secondary market hubs, and it will not be the last. Cities like Dallas and Tampa have grown to be a secondary market hub for a lot of companies in larger cities like New York and Los Angeles. As the economy shifts, companies have begun to realize the talent pools in certain areas are stronger due to socioeconomic and environmental factors.
Through skills-based hiring, heartland cities and rural areas can continue to evolve, attaining talent pools of workers and becoming hubs for certain markets. Large cities like New York and San Francisco might assume the role as executive branch, and smaller cities have the opportunity to become working branches that are different in the nature of work but equally important toward a company’s overall success. A city like Detroit, for example, has a rich history in the manufacturing industry and is known for cultivating hardworking, blue-collar workers. Those same workers instilled these values into the next generation, making this city a prime location to find employees with a strong work ethic.
It’s sometimes easy to overlook America’s heartland. Many U.S. cities fly under the radar of the national stage, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be paying attention to them. Just this year, Ann Arbor and Memphis were among the top cities for female founders raising their first round of funding. When we cultivate the mind-set of skills-based hiring and break the stigma around not attending university, a thriving middle-skill workforce can become a reality. There is still a place for degrees in our economy’s future, but most positions in the future of work will be dependent on candidates with the specific skills required to succeed.
Felix Ortiz is the Founder and CEO of Viridis.