College Degree Not Needed? This Company Removed Degree Requirements From Its Hiring Process

Penguin Random House is one of the world's largest publishers. Last year, the company decided to break down the bias in the hiring process and building its teams on potential and passion rather than pedigree.
Inc. reported that the U.K.-based publisher is already focusing on organizational diversity in terms of race and gender, among others. It also aims to attract creative talent regardless of educational background.

The company has removed degree requirements from their job application process. This is particularly helpful for fresh university graduates who have no work experience yet. It also widened Penguin's demographic and geographic net.

The publisher decided to implement the change in 2015. Other companies who did the same were Ernst & Young, PWC and Deloitte. These businesses believed that there was no correlation between someone's educational background and their actual work performance.

If more companies would follow suit, it would definitely be an advantage for those who recently graduated since hiring would now be based on merit instead of education. While getting a degree may still be a requirement, factors such as personality characteristics, creative potential, passion and culture fit would be given more weight.

Penguin Random House reportedly has profiles of their most successful team members. Using those data, they map those profiles against candidate pools with predictive analysis and digital video.

There will also be more focus on diversity, with this type of selection process. It was noted that a more diversified workforce would bring in more customers.

This is because, if at least one member has traits in common with the customer, the whole team would get a better understanding of that particular target audience. Moreover, socially diverse groups have been proven to be more innovative and creative in solving problems, thanks to their various experiences, points of view as well as perspectives.

"It's critical to our future - to publish the best books that appeal to readers everywhere," Neil Morrison, UK Group HR Director, said. "We need to have people from different backgrounds with different perspectives and a workforce that truly reflects today's society."