How STARs Turned Awareness to Action in One Year

Last June, I was invited to speak to Louisiana business and community leaders about the importance of the STARs talent category at a Future of Talent event and with SHRM’s Louisiana chapter. This June - exactly one year later - Louisiana has turned that awareness into action:

Last week, the state took formal action to tear the paper ceiling:  Louisiana's Governor signed HB566 to tear the "paper ceiling" by prohibiting baccalaureate degree requirements for most state employment - making it the 22nd state to tear the paper ceiling, a movement resonating across the country and gaining bipartisan support.

This didn't happen overnight. For months, Opportunity@Work 's STAR Advisory Council member Kenny Nguyen led the charge to tell his own STAR story to economic, HR, and policymakers across the state, including engaging Meagan West, President of the Greater Baton Rouge Society for Human Resource Management . As the mother of a STAR, Meagan was so motivated by the STARs talent category, that she has presented on STARs hiring across five different SHRM events across the state.

Both Kenny and Meagan shared their personal STAR stories, backed by Opportunity@Work's data and insights, and didn’t stop. On what the state's actions mean to him, Kenny shared: “As someone who doesn't have a traditional four-year degree, I'm what's known as a STAR - someone who is skilled through alternative routes...With over 1,000,000 folks in Louisiana’s workforce like myself, the room for more economic opportunity is now possible."

It’s inspiring to see how leaders have leveraged the STARs talent category and Tear the Paper Ceiling narrative to galvanize an entire state to make meaningful progress for STARs in the span of just one year. Tearing the paper ceiling doesn’t end with removing degree requirements - dismantling decades of STARs-exclusion takes hard work to break through multiple barriers. The good news is - these leaders are not alone. Here are other leaders showing up for STARs this month: 

• Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and John James (R-Mich) wrote in The Hill : “Tearing down the ‘paper ceiling’: A call for the opportunity to compete in the workforce.” In the article, they summarize the benefits of skills-based hiring and introduce the bipartisan Opportunity to Compete Act, which Opportunity@Work supported the development of.
• Indeed 's Chief People and Sustainability officer LaFawn Davis shared her STAR perspective in Fast Company : “I always tease people at my company: ‘You would have missed out on amazingness if you didn’t hire me because I didn’t have a college degree...” Indeed is part of Opportunity@Work’s Tear the Paper Ceiling coalition working to adopt skills-first hiring practices and #HireSTARs - as Davis says, “As we go into the future, and especially as we look at AI and automation, we really need to look at what the hiring process is doing to screen those people out.” See her perspective here.
• A recent Financial Times piece “Employers look to rip the ‘paper ceiling’ for non-graduates” cites Opportunity@Work’s insights on the STARs talent category, along with perspectives from Tear the Paper Ceiling coalition members Accenture Google IBM McKinsey & Company and Multiverse CEO Euan Blair . While removing degree requirements is the first step to opening up more opportunities to STARs, addressing all barriers STARs face must be done - like a lack of alumni networks and biased recruitment algorithms.

Lastly, I’d like to share what Oklahoma-based STAR Nikki Johnston a Chief Administrative Officer in healthcare shared on LinkedIn in response to the STARs message on why we must stop defining people by the absence of degrees and start defining them for what they have - skills - (STARs): 

“This resonates so deeply for me. It is such a struggle. It doesn’t matter what you do, how hard you work, what obstacles you overcome, or how high you climb, that piece of paper still looms over you like a guillotine-waiting to fall and chop off any hopes you have of moving forward in your career. The constant need to “out work” others is so real. To prove yourself over and over again because you don’t have a piece of paper that specifically states you are capable. I have seen the needle slowly moving to remove this barrier, but there is a lot of baggage to unpack to get to a place where experience is weighted as heavily as a degree. Thank you for spreading awareness and shining a light on those that have busted their butt to get where they are in spite of a lack of college education. I applaud you and all those who have not let that stop them from following their dreams!”

It’s clear in Louisiana and it’s clear from what I hear from STARs themselves - STARs are the energy powering this movement. STARs are showing up every day for us - for industry, for this country, for communities - now it's time that we show up for them, with intention and action. Join us.