How Canva's 'Skills Passport' initiative is supporting internal mobility

What do hiring managers prioritize during the recruitment process? If it's not skills, then they may be looking for the wrong qualifications.

Graphic design platform Canva launched its "Skills Passport" initiative last year in a push to identify and nurture key skills like visual communication and leadership in candidates and current employees. Canva has already gotten rid of degree requirements from their job listings, and even hosts high schools workshops, annual internships and graduate programs to nurture talent early on. But after increasing headcount by 300% in just three years, the Skills Passport became vital to ensuring the tech company was investing in talent, says Charlotte Anderson, head of people experience at Canva.

"Building a skills-first organization is helping to identify and fast track talent, upskill our team and support our internal mobility program, Canva Pathways," says Anderson. "[This] ensures fewer skills gaps while creating a really rich pool of global talent to drive our ambitious global expansion plans."

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The initiative starts with entry-level hiring: Canva's recruitment team isn't worried about elite college degrees or seeing job experience in tech or design industries, notes Anderson. Instead, candidates are tested on their ability to apply relevant skills to the role. While technical skills like design and programming are assessed depending on the role, soft skills like collaboration and communication are important too. 

"When it comes to entry-level hiring, we've found that we've had to evolve beyond traditional hiring practices and think outside the box," says Anderson. "We've focussed on things like scenario-based questions and practical work challenges during the hiring process to allow us to go deeper into how they would approach the kind of work we do at Canva."

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The company's skills-first philosophy continues after new talent is added to the workforce. For example, any new hire at Canva undergoes AI skills training during onboarding, and the company runs a machine-learning school to educate all teams on AI best practices. Canva's growth and impact team ensure current employees are engaging in new skills that are genuinely interesting to them — like adding stamps to their passport. 

While employers may assume that workers with a robust skills passport will look elsewhere for their next job, Anderson stresses that upskilling is necessary to retaining talent. If workers are constantly growing, then their drive towards internal mobility within their company grows too. That's how employers can cultivate tenured talent, with invaluable experience and knowledge. 

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Anderson advises employers to build a skills-first organization by first tackling their hiring process. This means hiring managers should undergo inclusive recruitment training and learn how to spot potential biases getting in the way of hiring a great candidate.

"Make hiring decisions based on experience, transferable skills, desire to make an impact," says Anderson. "Encourage candidates to apply even if they don't think they quite meet all of the skills listed or tick all of the boxes, including in your job ads."