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Soft skills are really hard to assess, which is an issue because right now, they’ve never been more in-demand. Today’s must-have candidates are adept at communication, time management, and critical thinking, among other traits. In fact, according to education non-profit America Succeeds, seven of the 10 most requested skills in job postings are soft skills.
There’s a good reason why that’s the case. Nearly 90% of recruiters surveyed in a LinkedIn report on global talent trends said that “bad hires” usually lacked adequate soft skills. When candidates can’t handle deadlines, struggle with collaboration, or fail to accept constructive feedback, they usually don’t last long.
Soft skills are tough to measure.
Unlike technical skills, which can more easily be learned, soft skills are uniquely challenging to develop. That’s mostly because they’re directly tied to intangibles like character, personality, backgrounds, and experiences. Those qualities are often hard to assess.
There are AI tools available to help businesses evaluate a job candidate’s soft skills; but the reality is that according to that same LinkedIn report, most companies still lean on behavioral or situational interview questions as a way of making those assessments. Yes, these kinds of questions do a fair job of identifying soft skills; however, they are less revealing than spending real time at work with a candidate.
An effective way to narrow the gap between what most behavioral questions reveal and that experience of actually getting to know a candidate is to have your company’s values inform your evaluation criteria. If transparency is a value your company prioritizes, then ask the candidate for an example of when they exhibited transparency in a professional environment. This way, you’re not just assessing soft skills, you’re assessing soft skills that are most important to your team.
How to assess soft skills.
Asking values-focused questions isn’t the only method for finding out if a job candidate has the soft skills necessary to succeed at your organization. Here are some other tips for making those important determinations:
Put candidates to the test.
Pre-employment testing is an effective way to identify the personality traits, work styles and approaches of the person you’re considering. Furthermore, measuring candidates’ scores against those of your highest performing employees is a way to quickly identify individuals who should move to the next level of your hiring process. If you’re wanting to know which tests are the best fit for your company as well as how to they should be deployed, the Society of Human Resource Management has recommendations.
Clue in on social cues.
As you ask candidates your value-centered behavioral questions, observe how they react as they respond. Beyond the standard set of nerves that materialize during an interview, see if the candidate shows any dramatic changes in behavior. Is their eye contact consistent? Are they prone to interruptions? Those are indicators of communication and listening skillsets.
Rely on references.
There’s a good chance you asked your job candidate for references. If so, ask those contacts questions about that person’s soft skills. Are responses consistent across each of the references the candidate provided? Are they in line with what the candidate expressed in their interview? Confirming a candidate’s soft skills is easiest if you leverage all the available insight.
Simulate real-life scenarios.
Place the candidate in conditions where they can show off the soft skills you’re hoping to see. Have them participate in an exercise where they have to rethink a defined process in a short amount of time, for example. Those stressors can reveal abilities to problem solve, think critically, manage time and be resourceful.
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BBB Great West + Pacific contributed this article.