Durable skills—often referred to as “soft skills,” such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking—are essential to workforce success. Yet while employers widely recognize their value, many organizations still struggle to assess and develop them consistently.
SkillsRight’s 2025 report, Insights from Hiring Managers: How Employers Can Turn a Skills-First Mindset into Sustained Impact, identified skills assessment, both technical and durable, as the primary barrier to adopting skills‑first hiring. This research snapshot builds on that finding by examining how organizations specifically assess, hire for, and develop durable skills in practice.
Based on a survey of 500 hiring managers and HR learning and development leaders, this study explores how organizations currently evaluate durable skills across hiring and employee development, and where current practices miss opportunities.
The findings reveal a clear disconnect. Employers increasingly value durable skills, yet they are often assessed too late in the hiring process and developed unevenly across the workforce. Degree status also continues to shape assumptions about durable skills capability, creating disparities in opportunity and advancement.
Closing this gap requires more structured and consistent approaches. Organizations must evaluate durable skills earlier, apply clear standards across talent, and embed development throughout the employee lifecycle.
DOWNLOAD THE PDF
Don’t just read the research. Learn how to put it to work!
Join our upcoming SkillsRight Lab on Monday, June 16 at 1pm ET for a deeper look at what the latest research reveals, where employers are getting stuck, and how leaders can begin closing the gap.
Key Findings
Durable Skills Are in High Demand, but Inconsistently Assessed
America Succeeds‘ analysis of nearly 76 million job postings from 2023–2024 found that durable skills appeared in 76% of postings, with nearly half requiring three or more. Yet despite this strong demand, many organizations continue to assess these capabilities inconsistently. Many employers still assess durable skills primarily during major decision points such as hiring, promotion, or termination. Few organizations integrate durable skills assessment into ongoing workforce development. This limits organizations’ ability to develop durable skills in alignment with business and workforce goals. Over time, this can weaken competitive positioning.
Durable Skills Assessment Often Happens Too Late in the Hiring Process
Most durable skills evaluation takes place during in-person or final-round interviews, where it often functions as a gatekeeping tool rather than an early indicator of candidate potential. This approach creates two challenges: strong candidates may be screened out before they can demonstrate their capabilities, and late-stage, subjective assessments can increase inconsistency and bias. Moving durable skills assessment earlier through structured, scenario-based evaluations can help organizations better identify role fit and capability beyond resumes alone.
Degree Assumptions are Limiting Opportunity
Without objective assessment, hiring managers are three times more likely to assume degreed candidates already possess durable skills (33%) than candidates without degrees (11%). These disparities continue after hiring, as employees without four-year degrees are 14% less likely to receive leadership development opportunities, limiting advancement regardless of actual capability. As a result, organizations overlook and underutilize capable, high-potential talent both externally and internally.
High-Impact Development Methods Remain Underused
This study found a consistent pattern: the most effective durable skills development approaches are relationship-based, applied, and embedded in real work. Yet several remain underused:
- One-on-one coaching or mentoring: 88% effectiveness, used by 46% of respondents
- Problem-solving workshops: 82% effectiveness, used by only 31%
- Job rotation and stretch assignments: 78% effectiveness, used by 35%
- Formal training programs: 74% effectiveness, widely used by 47%
In contrast, more passive formats such as internal lunch-and-learns are significantly less effective (55%), suggesting durable skills are best developed through structured practice, feedback, and application.
The findings highlight several opportunities for organizations to strengthen how durable skills are assessed, developed and applied across hiring and workforce development practices.
Recommendations
- Assess durable skills earlier in recruitment. Integrate structured, human-centered assessments early in the hiring process to reduce bias, manage high application volumes, and give candidates meaningful opportunities to demonstrate capability beyond their resume.
- Evaluate durable skills consistently, regardless of degree status. Apply the same structured assessments across candidates and employees to ensure decisions are based on demonstrated capability, rather than educational assumptions and proxies.
- Define role-specific durable skills clearly. Identify and articulate the durable skills most critical to success in each role to improve evaluator consistency, hiring precision and development effectiveness.
- Standardize skills assessment. Replace informal, impression-based evaluations with structured methods applied consistently across hiring, promotion and employee development.
- Invest in high-impact development methods. Prioritize coaching, mentoring, problem-solving workshops, and stretch assignments that make durable skills visible through structured application and feedback.
- Open development pathways to non-degreed talent. Review training and promotion criteria for degree-based barriers and shift toward demonstrated skills and work-based evidence to broaden access to advancement.
- Tie durable skills development to measurable outcomes. Connect durable skills investments to measurable workforce and business outcomes. This helps strengthen confidence in impact and sustain long-term commitment.
In an AI-driven labor market, durable skills are essential. But inconsistent assessment and uneven development continue to limit their impact. Closing this gap through structured, continuous, and measurable approaches will strengthen how organizations hire, develop and advance talent.
DOWNLOAD THE PDF
Don’t just read the research. Learn how to put it to work!
Join our upcoming SkillsRight Lab on Monday, June 16 at 1pm ET for a deeper look at what the latest research reveals, where employers are getting stuck, and how leaders can begin closing the gap.
