Every organization wants to hire top performers on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen very often. In fact, in most cases, organizations fail miserably. One reason for this rate of failure is “credential creep“: the act of raising minimum job requirements in the hope of hiring more qualified employees.
Ironically, credential creep leads to the opposite result of what is intended and expected. For example, requiring an executive assistant or construction supervisor to have a bachelor’s degree strangles the flow of qualified candidates and increases time-to-fill dramatically. Sure, setting a higher bar, in theory, isn’t a bad idea. But education alone is a poor predictor of job success. In other words, “higher” isn’t always “better.”
