Hiring is becoming more complex at the exact moment organizations can least afford friction. Declining labor participation and rapidly evolving job roles are making it harder for employers to find, match, and retain the right talent — especially when traditional hiring systems continue to rely on outdated job descriptions, arbitrary credential requirements, and disqualifying screening questions.
Skills for Chicago faced this challenge head-on.
The Challenge: A Broken Hiring Status Quo
Skills for Chicago operates at the intersection of workforce development and employer needs, with a mission centered on finding and keeping overlooked talent in a rapidly changing labor market. But like many organizations, they encountered systemic barriers that limited progress.
Declining labor participation and rapidly evolving job roles made it increasingly difficult for employers to find and retain the right talent. At the same time, many hiring processes still relied on outdated job descriptions, arbitrary credential requirements, and disqualifying questions that unnecessarily filtered out qualified candidates. While employers recognized the value of skills-based hiring, many found it more difficult to implement in practice than they initially expected Case-Study-SFC_v1.3.
The problem wasn’t awareness — it was execution.
The Goal: Remove Barriers and Expand Opportunity
Skills for Chicago set a clear target: remove hiring barriers by shifting focus from credentials to skills. The organization aimed to help employers adapt to evolving roles while expanding access to overlooked talent.
Looking ahead, they also recognized the need to:
- Create consistent job frameworks
- Anticipate future skill needs
- Prepare employers for workforce change and the growing impact of AI Case-Study-SFC_v1.3
To do this at scale, they needed technology that could operationalize skills-based hiring — not just talk about it.
The Solution: Partnering with Career Highways
Skills for Chicago partnered with Career Highways to enable a true shift to skills-based hiring.
Together, the organizations focused on:
- Identifying candidate skills — even those candidates overlooked
- Matching candidates to multiple jobs quickly and accurately
- Providing tools for consistent job roles, skills gap analysis, and AI impact forecasting Case-Study-SFC_v1.3
Joint Technology Platform
The solution was powered by a joint technology platform that combined enterprise infrastructure with skills intelligence:
- Powered by Salesforce (Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Analytics/Data Cloud)
- Integrated tools for candidate qualification, community management, recruiting, and market intelligence
- Enhanced with Career Highways’ AI-driven skills mapping and career journey tools Case-Study-SFC_v1.3
This foundation allowed Skills for Chicago to move from intention to execution — quickly.
The Results: A Rapid Shift to Skills-Based Hiring
The impact was immediate.
The platform enabled a rapid shift to true skills-based hiring, reducing friction, improving match speed, and driving stronger engagement and retention across employers.
Impact Metrics
- 40% faster candidate matching achieved
- Stronger employer adoption of skills-based hiring
- 70+ community partners actively engaged
- 1,000+ individuals successfully placed in roles
- 84% long-term talent retention rate
- $25M+ in annualized wages generated Case-Study-SFC_v1.3
What had previously felt difficult to implement became operational almost overnight.
Customer Perspective
“Career Highways is going to transform how you do HR. Almost overnight, you can shift to skills-based hiring for real. You can create consistent jobs and roles, identify skills gaps, manage your talent, and even identify how AI will impact your team.”
— Bridget Altenburg, CEO, Skills for Chicago Case-Study-SFC_v1.3
Looking Forward
By deploying AI-driven skills mapping and integrated Salesforce tools, Skills for Chicago positioned itself — and its employer partners — to respond to ongoing workforce change with clarity and consistency.
The result is not just faster hiring, but better hiring: reduced barriers, improved outcomes, and expanded access to opportunity.
Ready to remove hiring barriers and embrace skills-based hiring?
Let’s talk about what’s possible. Book a Strategy Session today.