Interview: Emphasizing both hard skills and soft skills?

Soft skills to enhance recruitment

Soft skills refer to a candidate's behavioural, cognitive, and emotional competencies - in short, their interpersonal skills. These may include abilities such as active listening, teamwork, creativity, and organization. Beyond the conventional technical skills, these human qualities are essential in a company, contributing to both personal and professional growth. Consequently, they are essential aptitudes and competencies to assess during the job interview.

LinkedIn has also conducted its survey to identify the most sought-after soft skills: creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence are the most desired abilities. Of course, this typology depends on the positions, industries, and companies. However, focusing on soft skills might help you choose between two candidates with equally interesting profiles, making it difficult to differentiate based solely on their technical competencies. Moreover, it will be beneficial to assign tasks to the candidate that align best with their preferences.

How many companies are searching for candidates with great resilience or acute critical thinking? Far fewer than those seeking individuals who can master specific applications or operate particular machines. Nevertheless, recruiting employees based on both their relational and technical aptitudes is a necessity!

How to evaluate soft skills during the hiring process?

To determine a candidate's soft skills, various methods can be implemented throughout the recruitment process:

• Group Interviews to assess their ability to work collaboratively.
• Logical Tests to observe their problem-solving skills.
• Simulated Situations to identify their creative and analytical aptitudes.
• Personality Quizzes to measure their emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is also a concept to consider during interviews. It refers to an individual's capacity to identify, understand, and regulate their own emotions as well as those of others. In other words, emotional intelligence allows one to enhance well-being, interpersonal relationships, and professional performance!

Candidates sometimes mention their soft skills directly in their CV or cover letter. Additionally, the structure and presentation of the CV can provide insights into a candidate's abilities in synthesis and organization. Letters of recommendation are also valuable indicators of soft skills, as the previous employer may highlight a strength that can be beneficial to your team!

Why not consider reaching out to a recruitment company and utilising all the resources it offers through Assessment Centres? Aptitude tests, behavioural assessments, logic tests, interviews, real-life and tailored scenarios - all these tools are developed by work psychologists with the purpose of evaluating your candidates' competencies and finding the perfect fit for your organisation!