Throughout the hiring process, it’s often easier to tell if a candidate has the required hard skills for a position than the soft skills that would make them a great fit for that role. Hard skills are acquired abilities that a candidate knows how to do based on experience – things like how to use Excel, how to code in a particular programming language, or how to do mathematical analysis or statistics. It’s pretty easy to tell if a candidate has these competencies, either through their resume, interview, or through a skills assessment.
But soft skills aren’t so obvious, and it takes a bit more digging to determine whether or not a candidate possesses them. Examples include communication skills, problem-solving ability, interpersonal skills, and leadership qualities. A lot of these qualities become pretty obvious after someone has been on the job for a couple of months, but ideally you’d prefer to know ahead of time if your candidates possess these qualities.
This webinar reviewed the key differences between hard and soft skills, why they are both so important, and how to go about assessing soft skills in your candidates through targeted interview questions, reference checks, and pre-employment assessments.
