More employers easing hiring standards: Just keep it consistent.

• Position: HR Trends

When unemployment peaked after the 2008 recession, companies could afford to inflate job requirements to find the perfect fit. But today's super-tight labor market has more employers lowering the bar to broaden their candidate pool and speed up hiring.

One "down skilling" trend: removal of college degree requirements (see chart).

Google, Apple and IBM are among the companies that no longer require applicants to hold college degrees. Terminix, which added a college prerequisite for branch managers in 2009, has now decided to make degrees "preferred."

Work-history requirements are also being relaxed. This year, only 23% of entry-level jobs ask applicants for three or more years of experience, compared with 29% in 2012.

Important legal point: Make sure that your organization doesn't lower the standards for certain applicants and not others. Consistency is your key defense to any type of discrimination claim.

Shifting standards: 5 tips

For too long, employers have used college degrees as a "psychological shortcut" to sort out good candidates, says Danny Iny, author of the book Leveraged Learning. That made sense when 5% held college degrees in 1900, but not today when nearly 40% of working Americans have degrees.

Iny's suggestions for employers: 1. Shift your mindset to override the "degree" signal. Take a close look at what really leads to success in your workplace, then revise your job postings to reflect the stuff that actually matters. Example: Laszlo Bock, Google's former HR chief, has said that looking at grades in degree programs...