How Much Education Should My Employees Have?

If you want the cream of the crop for your small business, do you have to hire a college graduate?

That has certainly been accepted wisdom in the working world for a long time, with college graduates typically earning more than their counterparts, and young people getting into thousands of dollars’ worth of debt to get those all-important letters after their name.

But how important is a college degree in the real world of hiring? How much importance should you place on a potential candidate's level of education?

Google De-Emphasizes College Degrees

In early 2013, Laszlo Bock, Google's senior vice president of People Operations, raised a few eyebrows when he revealed that the Granddaddy of the internet no longer asks applicants for their college transcripts. The number of degree-less employees has been rising as a result.

So what persuaded Google to take a step that seems to run counter to all the information out there imploring young people to get a good education in order to land a good job, such as one at Google? In a word: Relevance.

The workplace and the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in it are sufficiently different from the college environment that excelling in one does not necessarily mean excelling in the other. 

Does this mean you should stop caring about your employees' level of education? Not at all.

There are many advantages to hiring someone with a college degree, but it's by no means the only yardstick you can use to measure an employee's suitability for the job at hand.

What Are the Advantages Of Hiring College Grads?

There's no doubt that doing a degree takes a certain amount of dedication and focus. Hiring a graduate can have benefits such as:

• They are often practiced at public speaking and working in a team;
• They're used to problem solving and thinking up solutions;
• They're motivated and willing to put in the work to get where they want to be;
• You know they are learning-focused and teachable;
• With many colleges using the latest technology, they're likely to be tech-savvy and social media smart.

Gaining a degree hones many valuable skills and can polish a promising young person into a capable adult who is ready for the working world.

But what about those individuals who have not gained a degree?

What Can Non-Grads Bring to the Table?

Recruiters who refuse to look at applicants who don't have a degree behind them run the risk of missing out on a treasure.

Having a degree doesn't tell you all you need to know about a person's suitability for a job, or for your company.

When assessing whether someone is a possible fit for your organization, it's vital to look beyond whether they have a degree and examine whether they have the skills you need, whether they gained them through college or not.

For example:

• Motivation - have they run their own business? Been promoted within a reputable company? Did they organize the biggest baseball tournament in your state?
• Teachability - do they have hobbies that show a level of intellectual understanding? Have they undertaken challenging projects that required learning new skills? Do they have a keen and open mind?
• Problem solving - have they helped lead a team through a sticky situation? When you talk about your company, do they have useful ideas to contribute?
• Personableness - are they polite and respectful? What examples of team work can they give you? Take them out for coffee and take note of how they treat the barista. A degree doesn't make a person authentic or good to work with.

There Is No One Size Fits All 

When hiring new staff, the bottom line is that you want to find the people who will be the best fit for your company.

In some cases a degree will be a necessity - you probably wouldn't hire a lawyer or a teacher without the required academic achievements.

The vital thing is to know the job you are hiring for inside out, and know the skills that a person needs to perform it. Once you have that clear, you might want to focus less on how they got those skills, and more on whether or not they have them.

A bachelor degree job is still a valuable goal for any professional person, but by opening your mind to include workers who have come by the skills you need via a different path, you will broaden your base of potentially brilliant additions to your company.