Diversity by Skills: From Buzzword to Business Practice

Diversity is not a by-product. It is the result of consistent and targeted decisions.

‘We need more diversity’ – there is hardly a sentence more frequently said in the context of HR – especially in IT. And rarely is it implemented so half-heartedly. Although many companies want more diversity in their IT teams, the reality often remains surprisingly homogeneous.

The problem is usually not one of intention, but of system. Or, more precisely, of the selection mechanisms that determine who is even perceived as talent. And these mechanisms are anything but neutral.

While diversity initiatives often focus on employer branding, events or reporting, the real leverage lies elsewhere: in the selection criteria themselves. Those who continue to filter by university degree, gap-free CVs and perfect career milestones will inevitably find the same profiles over and over again. Diversity? Not really.

Skills-based hiring changes that – as we already touched on in the previous Insight. Because if you look at skills instead of careers, you suddenly see talent that previously fell through the cracks – and not only makes diversity in recruiting possible, but also suddenly measurable.

How exactly this works, why skills have a direct influence on diversity and what real business benefits companies have from it – that's what this is about today.

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Recruiting as a system – and why it often hinders diversity

Diversity rarely fails because of a lack of will – but mostly because of routines.

When companies talk about diversity, it is rarely just empty PR. In many HR teams, there is a genuine interest in building more diverse teams. And yet the reality often remains surprisingly homogeneous. The reasons for this lie not with the candidates – but in the selection mechanisms themselves.

Recruiting is often considered a neutral process. In reality, it is a system with built-in automatisms. CVs are scanned for degrees, interviews boil down to personal sympathy, and ‘cultural fit’ often remains a vague gut feeling. What is preferred are profiles that already resemble the team: similar studies, similar career paths, similar cultural codes.

This results in what sociologists call ‘homophile matching’: like attracts like. And this is not done with malicious intent, but rather out of convenience and a lack of reflection.

Particularly for people with non-linear life paths, this process becomes a barrier. Those who cannot present an academic degree, who dare to change their career direction or who have gaps in their CV due to parental leave or migration often fall through the cracks. And this is despite the fact that these people often have exactly the skills that count in everyday work – just not in the form in which the algorithm or CV screening recognises them.

So the problem is not a lack of diversity in the talent pool. It is the filter through which this pool is viewed. And as long as this filter focuses on classic signals such as title, brand and continuity, diversity remains a well-intentioned wish – but not a systematic part of recruiting.

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Skill-based thinking – why skills are fairer than career paths

In traditional recruiting processes, it is often assumed that certain stages in a candidate's CV automatically stand for quality: a degree from the ‘right’ university, a job with a well-known employer, a career that is as flawless as possible. But what happens if we turn this pattern of thought on its head?

The idea behind skills-based hiring is just that: instead of looking for signals of past affiliation, it's about putting actual skills at the centre. What can the person do? What have they specifically learned, achieved, implemented?

This approach is a well-known ‘game changer’ for underrepresented groups in particular. For example, those who have come to IT through practice-oriented routes – via bootcamps, self-study or open-source projects – often have no academic qualifications but do have relevant skills. Those who have gaps in their CVs due to parental leave or migration may have acquired skills during this time that have never been recorded before. And those who come from an environment where education is not a given have often acquired knowledge in other ways – and sometimes bring exactly what modern IT teams need: personal initiative, a diversity of perspectives and resilience. These people not only lay claim to a diverse target group, but also contribute a wide range of skills that enrich traditional IT skills.

Studies show that selecting based on skills instead of traditional criteria leads to significantly more inclusive hiring. According to a recent analysis by LinkedIn (2025), skills-based methods significantly expand the talent pool – especially with regard to women, people of colour, older and younger applicants, but also people without a university degree. BCG (2023) argues that skills-based methods help to break through the so-called ‘paper ceiling’ – the invisible barrier that prevents people without formal qualifications from taking the next step in their careers.

Skills make visible what traditional methods often overlook. They measure what people can actually do, not what they have been officially certified for at some point in the past. And that is precisely why they are the fairer benchmark.

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Tools & processes that enable diversity, not just promise it

If you want diversity, you don't need better wording, you need different processes.

Many companies have been writing diversity on their career pages for a long time. But there is a gap between intention and implementation. Because as long as nothing changes in the recruiting process, the result will remain the same. An inclusively formulated job ad is of little use if the traditional CV is the deciding factor.

This is precisely where skills-based hiring comes in: it shifts the focus away from the CV and towards the specific skill. To ensure this works, however, structures are needed that not only recognise these skills but also make them comparable.

One central lever is the question of how role profiles are created. Instead of bullet point lists with buzzwords, a precise analysis is needed: Which skills are really crucial for success in the role – and which of them can be learned? Companies like IBM and Accenture work with clear competency models that distinguish between must-haves, nice-to-haves and soft skills (see also our last Insight). This makes requirements comprehensible – and transferable to people from different backgrounds.

The selection process itself is also being transformed. If you really want to know whether someone can write code, you don't ask them to talk about previous projects, you test them – for example, with realistic coding challenges, project-based tasks or simulation-based interviews. Tools such as Codility, TestGorilla or Applied.io enable standardised procedures that assess skills while reducing unconscious bias.

Accenture provides a good example: the company has eliminated the requirement for a university degree for more than half of its entry-level positions – and instead introduced a broad-based skills assessment. In just 18 months, around 200,000 new employees could be hired – significantly more diverse than before. Google and IBM have also been relying on skills-based entry programmes for a long time, where the ‘What can you do?’ comes before the ‘Where have you been?’.

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Diversity pays off – with measurable results

Diversity is not a cosmetic touch for employer branding. Rather, it improves how teams think, decide and perform.

The link between diversity and economic success has long been proven – but rarely as concretely as in skills-based hiring. Studies show that diverse teams solve problems faster, work more creatively and think more innovatively. In a McKinsey analysis (2023), companies with leadership teams that were more diverse than average performed 39% better in terms of EBIT margins. This correlation is no coincidence: different perspectives lead to fewer thinking traps, better risk management and more realistic decisions – especially in complex, technology-driven industries.

Skills-based procedures play a crucial role here. They not only ensure that more people are able to get started, but also that teams are deliberately put together in a more diverse way – both professionally and culturally. This has an impact on key HR metrics: employee retention increases because people see themselves as reduced to their actual contribution – not their network or educational background. Turnover decreases because better-suited, more motivated candidates are hired. Employer branding improves measurably when it becomes clear that what counts here is ability, not background.

In a cross-industry survey, the TestGorilla platform found that 89% of companies using skills-based hiring were more satisfied with their new hires – and 93% observed greater team diversity. LinkedIn (2025) also emphasises: switching to a skills-based selection process expands the talent pool, reduces bad hires and improves the quality of teams – especially in IT-related roles.

In other words, those who focus on skills today not only get more candidates, but better ones. And more diverse ones. And that is not idealism, but an investment in the future viability of the company.

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Diversity is a result, not a goal. Skills-based hiring brings us closer to it.

If we really take diversity in IT seriously, it's not enough to work on the surface. The crux of the matter is not the wording of job ads or the gloss of the careers page – it's the question of how we decide who gets a chance.
Skills-Based Hiring transforms precisely that. It creates structures that are not only fairer, but also work measurably better. It opens up new opportunities for people who have been overlooked so far – and at the same time delivers better results for companies that are brave enough to broaden their view. And to ensure that the door is open to the diversity we really need. Diversity is not created by declaration. But by design. And those who start evaluating skills instead of careers today will have teams tomorrow that not only look more diverse – but also think more diversely. And that is exactly what makes all the difference.
If you want to outsource inclusive recruiting for more diversity with weekly reports or need support in this area, please feel free to contact us – we will show you how your company can benefit from skills-based hiring in very specific ways

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Sources:

• BCG (2023): Competence over Credentials: The Rise of Skills-Based Hiring https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/rise-of-skills-based-hiring
  
  
• LinkedIn (2025): Skills-Based Hiring Report https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/research/skills-first-2025
  
  
• TestGorilla (2023): Can Skills-Based Hiring Solve Tech’s Diversity Problem? https://www.testgorilla.com/blog/skills-based-hiring-diversity
  
  
• McKinsey (2023): Diversity Wins – How Inclusion Matters https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters
  
  
• Indeed/Accenture (2024): Accenture Thrives Thanks to Skills-First Hiring https://www.indeed.com/lead/accenture-thrives-thanks-to-skills-first-hiring
  
  
• alphacoders (2025): Skills-Based Hiring: The answer to the shortage of IT specialists? https://www.alphacoders.de/insights-en/skills-based-hiring-the-answer-to-the-shortage-of-it-specialists
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• alphacoders (2025): Inclusion in recruiting: how accessibility can give you a competitive edge ‍https://www.alphacoders.de/insights-en/inclusion-in-recruiting-how-accessibility-can-give-you-a-competitive-edge