Employers decoding non-degree credentials gain faster, stronger, more diverse hires
Employers that can read and use non-degree credentials with confidence are beginning to outpace rivals in the competition for skilled workers, according to new research from talent coalition OneTen and labour market analytics non-profit the Burning Glass Institute.
The study, "Credential Fluency: The Hiring Advantage in the Race for Skills," examined hiring data from more than 1,000 major US employers.
It concludes that a group of "credential-fluent" companies is turning boot camps, industry certifications and vendor badges into a concrete hiring advantage at a time of tight labour supply and fast-changing skill demands.
The report comes amid the expanding scale and complexity of the credential marketplace. Citing figures from non-profit Credential Engine, the authors note that employers must now navigate more than 1.85 million distinct credentials offered by 134,491 providers across the United States, making it difficult to distinguish meaningful signals of ability from noise.
Researchers define "credential fluency" as the ability to identify and validate credentials beyond four-year degrees as strong, current indicators of job-relevant skills.
That capability, they claim, is emerging as a critical differentiator as artificial intelligence and rapid technological change shorten the shelf life of technical skills from years to months.
"Many companies express support for skills-based hiring. Translating that intent into consistent practice continues to be challenging," said Debbie Dyson, CEO of OneTen, in a statement.
"This report makes clear that credential fluency—knowing which credentials matter, and how to operationalise them—gives companies an undeniable competitive edge."
How credential fluency supports skills-first hiring
A central finding of the research is that credential fluency is closely tied to whether "skills-first" hiring efforts actually change who gets hired.
The authors say many organisations have removed degree requirements or added credentials to job ads without adjusting the systems that govern screening and selection.
The analysis finds that dropping degree requirements alone is associated with only a two-percentage-point increase in the share of hires who hold non-degree credentials, and that there is little relationship between posting credentials as preferred and hiring based on them.
That gap between policy and practice, the report suggests, is where credential-fluent employers are pulling ahead.
These firms more consistently link specific credentials to business-critical skills, incorporate them into applicant tracking systems, and train recruiters and hiring managers to recognise which programmes signal real readiness for particular roles.
"The biggest barrier today isn't talent. It's translation," said Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute, in a statement.
"Many companies have made commitments to skills-based hiring, but their systems aren't able to recognise signals of work readiness other than degrees. However, our research has identified a set of employers making real progress. These firms are turning to a broader array of credentials and are building the infrastructure to identify and verify these signals, train talent acquisition teams, and hire with consistency."
According to the report, employers in the top 10% for hiring workers with non-degree credentials bring in such candidates 11 percentage points more often than firms in the bottom 10% when hiring for the same kinds of jobs.
Those leading companies, the researchers say, are also seeing faster hiring, stronger early performance, and improved retention when they rely on validated credentials as part of their skills-first models.
The research further finds that non-degree credentials only support skills-based decisions when employers can distinguish those that reliably measure job-relevant skills from those that do not.
Clearer alignment between particular credentials and role requirements is associated with stronger hiring outcomes.
The findings come against the backdrop of a labour market in which nearly 60% of US workers do not hold a four-year degree but increasingly possess some form of non-degree credential.
The report argues that employers able to treat those credentials as trusted, interpretable signals of skills will be better positioned to reach qualified candidates who might otherwise be filtered out by degree-based screening.
