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Soft skills are the key reason many new hires fail to thrive. 89% of recruiters agree that lacking these essential abilities is a major factor in employee turnover.
These modern power skills are necessary for employees to adapt and communicate effectively, resulting in costly mistakes and lost organizational potential.
Not to mention, one bad hire can cost up to $15,000, which is a hefty pay in the long run. This blog discusses soft skills and their importance in today’s workplace. Let’s dive in!
What are soft skills?
Soft or power skills enable employees to navigate their work environment, collaborate effectively, and achieve their goals. Soft skills include vital skills such as active learning, interpersonal skills, communication abilities, personality traits, attitudes, and emotional intelligence.
Examples of soft skills include:
- Communication
- Time management
- Team management
- Critical thinking
- Problem-solving
- Interpersonal skills
- Leadership qualities
- Adaptability
- Emotional intelligence
- Decision making
Since soft skills can’t be quantified, such attributes can be challenging to measure during hiring. But it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to assess.
Testlify is an AI-powered assessment tool that offers over 1,700 tests tailored for more than 50 roles. This platform allows recruiters to assess essential skills and make informed hiring decisions.
Hard skills vs. Soft skills
Hard skills are specific, measurable abilities typically acquired through education or training. They include technical competencies such as programming, data analysis, and proficiency in software applications. These skills are often quantifiable and can be tested through assessments or practical applications, making them crucial for performing specific job functions.
In contrast, soft skills refer to interpersonal attributes that enhance an individual’s ability to work well with others. These include communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. Soft skills are often more challenging to measure but are essential for fostering collaboration and maintaining a positive workplace environment.
Top 10 soft skills for the workplace
Below are the top ten examples of soft skills necessary for a successful workplace.
Communication
The ability to communicate effectively with others is a critical soft skill. This includes being able to listen attentively and convey information clearly and concisely.
Communication is critical for nearly every job, and the better an employee’s communication skills, the more efficient they will be at collaborating within your organization. That means higher productivity for your team.
Improve your hiring process with Testlify’s communication test, which enables you to identify candidates who excel at conveying ideas.
Time management
Time management refers to prioritizing tasks and allocating time efficiently without unnecessary stress.
Individuals can enhance productivity and meet their commitments by setting clear objectives and deadlines. Good time management increases personal efficiency and contributes to overall team performance.
Team management
Team management or teamwork is the ability to work together collaboratively to achieve a shared goal.
This involves recognizing each individual’s strengths and weaknesses while fostering trust, accountability, and open communication.
Effective team management leads to higher engagement and better project outcomes.
Check out Testlify’s team leadership and management test, crafted to identify and develop the skills needed to effectively lead and inspire your team.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking includes analyzing information, solving problems, and making decisions.
Your organization will need leaders who can assess complex information, interpret and maintain context, and apply that knowledge to sound decisions.
Test your candidate’s inductive and deductive critical thinking ability.
Problem-solving
Problem-solving refers to identifying challenges, analyzing information, and coming up with effective solutions in a logical and resourceful way. This includes thinking creatively, making decisions, and troubleshooting problems.
Effective problem-solving in the workplace is an essential power skill that can massively impact employees’ ability to do their jobs.
Check out Testlify’s problem-solving test, designed to evaluate critical thinking skills.
Interpersonal skills
Interacting effectively with others is a key soft skill. This includes building relationships, communicating effectively, and handling conflict.
When people are involved, there is always the potential for conflict or miscommunication. Employees with strong interpersonal skills are an asset in challenging work environments.
Testlify’s interpersonal skills test to gauge how your candidates’ can handle situations.
Leadership qualities
Leadership qualities are the most important soft skills for excelling in any field. These comprise numerous attributes such as vision, integrity, etc.
Effective leaders inspire those around them by providing a clear direction and showing strong dedication to their objectives.
Additionally, they foster an inclusive environment where team members are encouraged to contribute and feel appreciated. Gaining leadership skills can improve a person’s job opportunities and have a beneficial impact on the company.
Discover Testlify’s leadership test to evaluate and enhance your leadership skills, empowering you to inspire and guide teams toward success.
Adaptability
Flexibility is adapting to changing circumstances and environments, responding positively to new challenges, and shifting priorities. This might involve juggling multiple tasks, working well under pressure, or dealing with difficult people.
The better employees can adapt to changing circumstances, the faster they find solutions and correct their actions.
Evaluating candidates’ adaptability is the best way to gauge their ability to handle situations.
Explore Testlify’s adaptability test, which features in-basket exercises, situational judgment tests, and more to assess candidates’ ability to adjust to changing environments.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the awareness and management of one’s own emotions, along with understanding and responding appropriately to the emotions of others. This helps improve personal and professional relationships.
Check out Testlify’s emotional intelligence test to assess your candidate’s ability to navigate professional relationships.
Decision making
Decision making refers to the ability to evaluate all possible options and find the best course of action.
Strong decision-makers consider multiple factors, including potential risks and benefits, to make informed choices. This skill is vital for effective leadership, as it can significantly impact team dynamics and organizational outcomes.
Test your candidate’s ability to make well-informed decisions skills using Testlify’s decision-making test.
Why are soft skills important?
LinkedIn studies show that soft skills, often power skills, are essential in the workplace.
The research also highlights that individuals who continuously upskill in these areas have an 8% higher chance of getting promoted than those who don’t.
Here are some key advantages of why soft skills are important:
Better communication
Efficient communication is critical for smooth business operations. It improves collaboration, reduces misunderstandings, and saves time.
Better communication ensures information flows seamlessly between employees, teams, and stakeholders. This leads to increased overall productivity and fewer delays in achieving goals.
Check out Testlify’s communication test to evaluate candidates’ ability to convey ideas clearly and effectively.
Increased innovation
Creative employees can be a gold mine of fresh ideas and interesting solutions to solve various problems within your organization.
This is especially true in highly technical fields, where innovation and constant technological development create new challenges almost daily.
Hiring technical staff with strong creative ability can be very valuable in forging new solutions and remaining innovative in your industry.
Enhanced problem-solving abilities
Strong soft skills lead to faster problem-solving in business, where challenges arise constantly. Employees with critical thinking skills can quickly assess issues, take initiative, and find solutions efficiently, often without direction.
Their ability to navigate complex problems independently helps recover opportunities and minimize losses. Investing in these skills ensures your team can swiftly and effectively handle obstacles.
Check out Testlify’s problem-solving test to measure candidates’ critical thinking skills and their ability to analyze challenges
Increased productivity
Soft skills directly boost productivity by improving communication and teamwork, reducing time lost to misunderstandings or conflicts. Employees with strong time management and organizational skills can prioritize tasks more efficiently.
Problem-solving abilities help address issues faster, preventing delays. Leadership and emotional intelligence keep teams motivated and focused on goals.
Ultimately, a workforce with well-developed soft skills works more smoothly and achieves results quicker.
How talent acquisition teams can foster employee soft skill development?
Soft skills training is the key to improving and bridging employee skills gaps.
Almost 70% of business leaders admit to a skills gap, and about 40% believe it has worsened in the last few years. These statistics indicate the pressing need for upskilling and reskilling employees.
Furthermore, LinkedIn recently published a report stating the importance of soft skills in the future workplace. Targeted training is one sure shot way to encourage employees to adopt power skills.
Talent acquisition can improve employees’ soft skills by integrating soft skill assessments into the hiring process and providing ongoing development opportunities.
Employers can identify candidates with strong interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills. Additionally, investing in training programs, mentorship, and feedback mechanisms helps employees further develop these competencies.
Individuals can enhance their soft skills through mentorship, formal training, and observing how others effectively manage peer interactions and navigate challenging interpersonal situations.
This approach enhances individual performance and strengthens overall team dynamics and organizational success.
But how do you measure whether a candidate has these skills, and how do you compare candidates?
Let’s have a look at how Testlify is helping organizations solve this.
How to evaluate a candidate’s soft skills?
Use pre-employment assessment software
The biggest challenge organizations have faced is testing individual candidates’ soft skills. Testing cognitive ability, problem-solving skills, and other skills isn’t easy.
But with AI-powered talent assessment software like Testlify, organizations now have a powerful tool for quickly and effectively testing candidates.
Prepare interview questions
Prepare role-specific questions to assess candidates. This helps recruiters to evaluate job seekers based on the same parameters.
With Testlify, you can design customized questionnaires tailored to each role. Our automated AI grading system enables global benchmarking of candidates, simplifying the hiring process.
Identify critical skills
Identify critical skills your new hire must have to excel in the position. Create specific questions that gauge candidates using simple skills tests.
For instance, conflict resolution is essential in a customer service role. By asking candidates how they dealt with tough customer interactions in the past, you can better assess their ability to stay calm under pressure.
This way, you can judge their problem-solving skills more accurately instead of just focusing on how they appear during the interview.
Ask behavioral questions to assess real-world situations
Behavioral questions offer a unique approach to understanding how candidates have applied their soft skills in real-world scenarios.
For instance, you can inquire about when candidates had to navigate a challenging team project. Their responses will reveal their teamwork and communication skills, helping you gauge how they might perform in similar situations within your organization.
Best talent assessment software for evaluating soft skills
Talent assessments are online tests that can be configured to test candidates in various disciplines, from technical skills to cognitive ability. They can be optimized for each position that an organization is hiring for to assess a candidate’s relevant skills best.
These assessments can then be automated to send out invitations, and you can monitor test results in real-time. However, the most powerful benefit of these assessments is the ability to compare candidates side by side, which is done using a simple scoring system.
Each candidate can be evaluated according to their performance, and the best candidates can be easily spotted. This means you no longer need to spend hours sifting through piles of resumes. You can now quickly assess individuals and create a shortlist for interview rounds.
Testlify has a user-friendly interface, easy to automate, and offers a positive candidate experience.
It’s no wonder recruiters are turning to talent assessments to improve their hiring process and ensure they hire the right people every time.
Book a free demo, or sign up for a free trial.
