From Curriculum to Skills: the Paradigm Shift that is revolutionizing Work

There are about seven different generations currently confronting each other in the world, and within organizations at least four are interacting at the same time. This is an extraordinary richness, but also a daily challenge: each generation brings with it different perspectives, values and needs, but collaboration is not always easy. To exaggerate, we could say that each generation has a brain that functions differently: what does that mean?

Understanding these differences is not only useful, but strategic.

The brain is not a rigid system. It is plastic, adapting through experience and practice and allowing us to acquire different skills at different stages of life. For example, fluid intelligence, that is, the ability to think quickly and remember information, peaks around age 20; the ability to evaluate emotional states is refined around age 40-50, while crystallized intelligence, that is, the accumulation of facts and knowledge, can grow as late as age 60-70.

Neuroscience offers us an important key: recognizing the value of skills acquired over time is essential to truly valuing each generation and making more informed organizational decisions.
With this in mind, the language of skills becomes a strategic tool. It helps to overcome prejudices and build more inclusive and effective contexts. Talking about competencies, then, means going beyond stereotypes and embracing a more realistic and strategic view of people. And it is this shift in perspective, which is increasingly central to HR culture today, that gives rise to the reflection in this article.

A competency-based model

Only a few years ago, the idea that companies might move away from the traditional personnel assessment based on a rigid reading of the Curriculum Vitae would have aroused skepticism. Today, however, the scenario has changed dramatically: globally, the dominant paradigm in the hiring process is the “Skills-First Hiring”, which shifts the focus from the “who” to the “how.”

This approach prioritizes practical skills-both technical and soft skills-over educational qualifications, revolutionizing the criteria by which organizations evaluate and select talent.

A report by Dutch software house TestGorilla, conducted on more than 1,000 companies worldwide, shows that 94 percent of recruiters consider the skills-based hiring approach more predictive of job success than simply reading a CV ^1.

But what advantages does this model offer, both for workers and employers?

Adopting a competency-based approach is a decisive step toward a more inclusive, efficient and future-oriented labor market. This model enables traditional barriers to be overcome, opening doors to a wider and more diverse pool of talent.

^A 2023 study by LinkedIn Economic Graph2 showed that entire industries could benefit significantly from this transformation:

• Greater inclusiveness: allows for the involvement of candidates who are often excluded from traditional selection routes, such as those without a bachelor’s degree.
• Expanding the talent pool: in the education sector, for example, the introduction of skills-based criteria could increase the pool of potential candidates by 24 percent.
• Reducing the skills gap: selecting based on actual skills helps to more effectively fill skills gaps demanded by the market.
• Increased retention and loyalty: people who feel valued for what they can do, rather than for the titles they have earned, tend to stay with the company longer.
• Attracting proactive profiles: companies that invest in skills development attract professionals who are oriented toward continuous growth.
• Aligning with the younger generation: Gen Z develops skills through unconventional paths such as self-education, volunteering or freelance work. According to a ^LinkedIn survey3, 40 percent of young people would be willing to give up 2-5 percent of their salary to gain access to more training roles.

What, then, is the new role of the HR function in this scenario?

HR as a catalyst for change

From an operational perspective, the adoption of the Skills-First Hiring approach entails concrete impacts on several fronts. Among the most relevant are the revision of Job Descriptions. This is where recruitment and selection starts: from the way job ads are thought out, written and published.

Interestingly, from 2020 to 2024, companies are less and less likely to include a degree requirement in job postings, as shown in the chart below analyzing job ads posted on Indeed’s U.S. portal.

This is not to say that formal qualifications are disappearing altogether: in fields such as health care, for example, academic degrees remain essential. However, a more flexible view of the concept of “qualification” is becoming more widespread, shifting the focus to what a person is actually capable of doing, rather than the formal path he or she has followed.⁴

We report as an example the case of Siemens, a leading German multinational technology company. In its search for a number of project engineers, a crucial figure in the company’s organization, Siemens chose an atypical yet courageous approach: it indicated in the advertisements that no previous experience was necessary. The selection focused on soft skills-such as time management and organizational skills-regardless of educational or professional background.

This approach demonstrates the importance of reviewing and restructuring Job Descriptions: making them more neutral, inclusive, and specific makes it possible to expand the pool of candidates and improve the quality of applications.
In fact, LinkedIn research tells us that job ads that list skills in detail experience an 11 percent increase in the rate of application views compared to those that do not mention them.
This could be explained by the fact that making the required skills explicit makes it easier for candidates to identify with the role, even in the absence of direct experience in that ^specific position5.

A second front concerns internal mobility and skills mapping. Being HR today means strategically managing the human asset at hand, turning it into a competitive advantage for the organization.
In a context in which recruitment is increasingly based on competencies, the medium- to long-term investment in newly hired people becomes even more significant.

This can only happen by rethinking the role of resources in the company: not as mere employees with determined and rigid job descriptions, but people with nonreplaceable skills, each with a unique ability to make a contribution. This new paradigm calls for a deep reflection on the evolution of professional careers.
We know that much of talent management practices are still strongly anchored in position-based logics: HR outlines job descriptions, defines salary levels, plans training and builds organizational charts according to rigid, predefined schemes. Managers recruit, assign assignments, evaluate performance and promote employees according to the roles they hold, while employees progress by linear transitions from one position to another. This approach, however, treats the workforce as a static system, managed according to the logic of efficiency rather than growth.

The skills-based model overturns this approach: it no longer pigeonholes people into “pre-packaged” structures, but of designs dynamic pathways based on real capabilities, aptitudes and potential. Talent management then becomes fluid, personalized and oriented toward continuous growth. Skills-first organizations promote internal mobility no longer only by vertical advancement, but also through horizontal and cross-functional pathways, enhancing the value of human capital in a more equitable and ^strategic manner.6

An interesting case is that of Saipem,an Italian multinational company engaged in the infrastructure and energy sector, which has recently created a system of resource organization based on individual skills that can be used in a flexible and ^modular way.7
The heart of the model is the “mapping of skills,” i.e., a sort of “library” of skills present in the company, designed to allocate resources to various projects and different business areas, regardless of their job title.
Each employee, therefore, is no longer considered according to the position he or she occupies, but as a set of unique skills. A logic that allows for more personalized and flexible professional growth paths to be followed.

A new vision of talent

In summary, adopting a competency-based HR process is not just an emerging trend, but a concrete and strategic response to new labor market dynamics. In an environment marked by a growing skills gap, rapid change, and increasing demand for flexibility, companies that bet on potential build a lasting competitive advantage.

Against this backdrop, organizations that choose to invest in skills development not only become more attractive but also build a lasting competitive advantage.
Rethinking roles, mapping skills, investing in continuous growth: these are the levers for attracting, developing and retaining the talent of today and tomorrow.

The message is clear: it is no longer enough to ask where a person has been. One must look at what he or she is capable of doing – and more importantly, what he or she can become.