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HR secrets
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niversities are a big industry that has power is not new; what is new is the ever-increasing
remained remarkably resistant to change. ability to predict performance based on data.
While getting a job isn’t the only reason
people pursue a degree, it’s an essential It’s got to be about data
Uone. If a university degree was no more Why do recruiters hire university grads rather than
valuable than a high school diploma, then enrollment people with a high school diploma? In part it’s
would drop significantly. Ideally, from the viewpoint because that’s what has always been done. They
of business, a university education should add to seek graduates from “good” universities because it
someone’s capability – the value shouldn’t be in seems to make sense.
the degree, in the piece of paper, it should be in the However, we are moving away from a world
education. I’m not sure that always happens and where we do “what we’ve always done” and “what
society would be better off if universities raised their seems to make sense” to a world of “what the data
game. shows”. We are getting better at analysing what
People without university degrees do find characteristics lead to good performance and so
themselves at a disadvantage in the job market no recruiters should end up relying less on the piece of
matter how competent they are. That’s a result of paper or school reputation in deciding whom to hire.
how recruiters work. Potentially, recruiters could
assess the capabilities of anyone who applied The new world of credential-less
regardless of their education, but historically it’s been
easier to narrow the applicant pool by requiring a hiring
degree. At the moment we rely on whether or not a person
We normally look to politicians or the universities has a university degree as an important piece of
themselves to drive change, but maybe that’s not data in screening candidates. We can get more
the right lever; maybe it’s recruiters who will disrupt predictive measures. When that happens, it will lead
university education. to a revolution in universities. Students will flock to
the programmes that add to their real capability and
The incredible power recruiters have steer clear of the ones that don’t.
Perhaps in the future the self-educated
over universities drop-out who has spent time participating in
Let’s start with a simplified scenario. Imagine if Toastmasters and studying Khan Academy videos
recruiters found that an MBA graduate was no more will find themselves scoring higher on a recruiter’s
likely to succeed as a manager than a smart high assessment tests than someone whose main
school dropout. Universities would have to ensure claim to competence is the name on their degree.
their MBA programmes really did add to a student’s Recruiters will succeed in bringing the revolution to
ability to be a manager, not simply rely on the higher education where others have failed because
reputation of the degree. they’ll have the data to know what education really
A more detailed scenario would be that recruiters makes a difference.
might learn that they didn’t need the data point Once again, people may pursue university
of what degree a person has to select the best education for reasons other than its impact on
performers. Imagine if the best predictor of their career. However, if a student is investing a
managerial potential was a series of tests given by lot of time and a lot of money in a degree then it
a recruiter. It is likely that MBA grads, on average, should genuinely improve their capability. University
would score higher on those tests than dropouts; but programmes that do that should be cheered; those
knowing what degree a person has wouldn’t add to that don’t should be changed. Recruiters can make
the accuracy of the prediction of performance. As a that happen.
student, you’d have to decide whether an MBA was
the best way to get your scores up since the scores,
not the degree, would guide the hiring decision. David Creelman is CEO of Creelman Research,
Recruiters have great power over the education creelmanresearch.com. He is best known for his
system because one of the main reasons students workshops on Agile Analytics, Evidence-based
go to university is that it will impress recruiters. This Management and the Future of Work.

HR FUTURE · JUNE 2018 13