The Skills-First Difference
The Skills-First Difference
For decades, hiring and promotion has worked the same: interview candidates, and assess them based on experience, education, and a few other factors.
Skills-First is a different way of looking at talent. It prioritizes a worker’s actual, demonstrable skills, knowledge, and abilities. Candidates are sometimes called STARs: Skilled Through Alternative Routes.
STARs can include:
- People in recovery from substance use who did not complete college or have resume gaps while battling addiction
- People who didn’t finish high school, but learned skilled trades while following their passions, such as auto repair or home remodeling
- Formerly-incarcerated people who studied skilled trades while in prison, like HVAC service or plumbing
Why Skills-First?
Major shifts in demographics have sent workforce participation to its lowest level in 70 years.
Baby Boomers are aging out of the workforce. Younger generations are reluctant to take certain jobs in critical sectors. Major immigration policy changes have reduced the pool of available American workers. Meanwhile, employers are under increasing pressure to meet their labor needs amid economic uncertainty.
In 2024, we produced an in-depth report on America’s growing labor shortage and the ways second-chance hiring can make a difference. Our award-winning team spent months researching more than 40 respected sources and our own proprietary data to produce this white paper. Learn more and download the report here.
Backgrounds for all workers successfully placed by Cornbread Hustle
Great Workers Come From All Backgrounds.
Every year, we survey all our placements with employers since 2016. For 2025, we found our top-performing hires across all clients have criminal records that include violent charges, such as aggravated assault, and nonviolent charges, like drug possession.
In our surveys, we find no strong correlation between the type of charge and the worker’s on-the-job performance. In fact, those with a violent criminal past are slightly more likely to succeed after we place them in the right job.
The strongest mark of success was related to environment: employees at workplaces where they were nurtured by caring, supportive management were better performers, and stayed with their employer longer.
Our Proven Process
Every worker is unique, and every employer’s needs are different. We identify the best matches to ensure the greatest odds of a long-term benefit to both.
Before we begin a relationship with a new employer partner, we conduct a thorough on-site visit, to ensure the environment is a great fit for our talent pool. We then make regular follow-up visits to talk with employees and managers, for building trust and recognizing standout workers.
In addition, every worker we place is offered free, lifetime access to our exclusive 12-Week Starting Over Program.
Once we have established a partnership with a business like yours, we implement our six-step Proven Process:
Get Started With Your Custom Skills-First Hiring Strategy Today.
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