What do these following successful individuals have in common?
- Mark Zuckerberg, Co-Founder & CEO of Meta (Facebook)
- Steve Jobs, former Founder and CEO of Apple
- Bill Gates, Founder & CEO of Microsoft
- Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin
- Anna Wintour, Editor In Chief of Vogue Magazine
- Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter & Square
None of them have a college degree.
While it’s illegal to discriminate against a job applicant based on their race, ethnicity, gender, age, or disability, what isn’t illegal is requiring a college degree for a job that most people don’t necessarily need in order to do the job well. Byron Aguste, CEO of Opportunity@Work, a non-profit that aims to rewire the labor market, stated to the Washington Post that “while degree discrimination is not illegal, it should be considered a damaging bias that’s blinding companies to talent they need and reinforcing existing economic inequalities.”
With declining college enrollments, and the “Great Resignation” still in full swing, more companies find themselves scrambling to figure out how to bring in new talent. DEI efforts aside, more organizations are realizing that removing the college degree requirement from certain jobs has been a successful way to bring in employees that are just as valuable as college graduates.
What does this mean for your organization? And if your People Team can’t use a degree as a quick reference check that candidates have the proper education and skills for a role, what do they do?
- Implementing skills tests as an alternative to resumes, or as a precursor to an interview is rising in popularity, and is a great way to also mitigate unconscious bias. Additionally, understanding your candidate’s true capabilities via hands-on testing vs. how well they may or may not interview can be critical to that new hire’s success in the role and can eliminate costly turnover.
- Reframe the belief that education is more important than experience. Experience itself is its own form of education, and if Elon Musk can build Tesla and SpaceX with that belief, certainly your organization can. Take some time to assess what the perceived value is for the degree itself; is it because a degree seems like a reliable indicator of intellectual competence? If so, skills tests and/or psychological assessments have much better predictive outcomes for future job performance, without the requirement of certain socioeconomic statuses.
- If your company or organization is focused on combating economic inequalities, a great place to start is reviewing your job requirements and realistically assessing if a degree is actually required for the job.
As with every initiative and action to increase equity and inclusion, this will not be a quick and easy process. However, opening up a previously unsourced talent pool, and finding a population ripe with experience and ability is always worth it.
References:
OpEd from Byron Aguste: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/20/majority-americans-lack-college-degree-why-do-so-many-employers-require-one/
Additional Resources:
Article: Inc.com - Elon Musk to the Young and Ambitious: Skills Matter More Than Degrees: why-elon-musk-doesnt-care-about-college-degrees.html
Video: The Talent Delusion: Why Data, Not Intuition is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential with Tomas Chamorro (1:22:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJT4d7aghoQ
