Ren Akinci
Chief People Officer
Emerald
Episode 173
Degree-blind hiring: Unlocking 60% of America's untapped talent.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleMay 27, 2025 · 7:52
Thesis
“Removing college degree requirements is a 'talent-first' business strategy, not just a diversity initiative, that unlocks a vast pool of skilled individuals, enhances talent pipelines, and ultimately leads to stronger organizational performance.”
Show notes
Breaking Educational Barriers in Talent Acquisition with Ren Akinci
In this episode of the Built by People Podcast, the host welcomes Ren, who shares her 15-year journey in HR across various industries and discusses the pivotal moment when she realized the unnecessary barriers created by college degree requirements.
Ren talks about her partnership with OneTen to remove degree requirements in over 75% of job descriptions and how this initiative has diversified talent pools and strengthened recruitment pipelines.
She shares insights on the impact of eliminating degree prerequisites on diversity and inclusion and emphasizes hiring based on skills and potential over formal education.
Ren concludes with advice for companies interested in adopting similar approaches and stresses the importance of tapping into a wider talent market.
00:00 Introduction and Career Journey
01:08 Realizing the Barriers of Degree Requirements
02:17 Practical Experience Over Formal Education
03:15 Partnership with OneTen
04:28 Impact on Diversity and Inclusion
05:47 Success Stories and Skills-Based Hiring
06:56 Parting Advice and Call to Action
07:44 Conclusion
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What you'll take away
- 160% of the US workforce lacks a college degree; requiring one significantly limits access to a broad and skilled talent pool.
- 2Skills acquired through community colleges, military service, boot camps, certifications, or work experience are often as valuable as a traditional degree.
- 3Removing degree requirements should be approached as a 'talent-first' initiative, focusing on spotting potential and skills rather than solely a diversity metric.
- 4Performance issues are typically linked to onboarding gaps, misaligned responsibilities, or unequipped managers, not a candidate's educational history.
- 5Hiring individuals with service industry backgrounds (retail, hospitality, food service) can bring employees with highly developed 'soft skills' crucial for collaboration, decision-making, and customer satisfaction.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Removing degree requirements is primarily a 'talent-first' initiative for business objectives, not merely a D&I initiative.
- •It's unnecessary and potentially counterproductive to track degree status for D&I metrics when the goal is to open access to all talent.
- •True performance failures are almost never due to a lack of a 4-year degree, but rather systemic issues within the organization.
In Ren's words
“For me, it was when I started reading statistics. For example, the US Census Bureau releases data that shows how many percentage of US workers don't have degrees, and that percentage is 60%. So that's a lot of people that you are not getting access to when you have college degree as a requirement.”
Highlights the significant portion of the workforce excluded by traditional degree requirements.
“I think it's actually a talent-first initiative. It's about training hiring managers and recruiters to spot potential and hire based on skills.”
Re-frames the motivation for removing degree requirements from D&I to a strategic talent advantage.
“I think in general, for most companies, when performance issues do occur, they're usually tied to onboarding gaps, misaligned responsibilities, or unfortunately unequipped managers, not someone's education history.”
Challenges the common misconception that education history is a primary cause of performance issues.
“Wholeheartedly believe in it, and I'm happy to help anybody who's listening that wants to start this at their organization, whether it's all of their jobs, some of their jobs, or even 10 or 15 jobs. Progress is progress, and I think going back to that statistic of 60% of people not having college degrees, if you have talent gaps, if you're looking for people and you can't find people to, to place in the roles that you're hiring for, you're missing out a huge market, and I'd love to help you tap into it.”
Serves as a call to action, offering practical advice and emphasizing the business opportunity of skills-based hiring.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Organizations struggle with talent gaps and limited candidate pools due to outdated college degree requirements.
- •Companies are overlooking a large segment (60%) of highly qualified individuals with valuable skills gained outside of traditional higher education.
- •Performance issues are misattributed to a lack of formal degrees instead of internal shortcomings like poor onboarding or ineffective management.
- •Recruiting processes fail to identify and leverage critical 'soft skills' like collaboration and adaptability, often abundant in service industry professionals.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Red says college degree requirements are creating unnecessary barriers in HR
Red Carpet: College Degree Requirement
Ren: We remove degree requirements for 75% of our job descriptions
How OneTen Works for Hiring Students With Degrees
Oracle removed its degree requirements to boost diversity and inclusion
D&I Impact of Removing Degree Requirement
You hire for skills and potential first, not degree requirements
What is the Hiring Process for Service Industry Talent?
Wren recommends removing college degree requirements from jobs that deserve skills-based hiring
Wren Bowen on College-based Hiring
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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