Consider Soft Skills When Hiring
Every job has some core skills that are needed to make a success of the work but there are other transferable skills which can make the difference between someone being an asset or a liability to team cohesion. It is worth taking the time to explore the soft skills that people are bringing with them and widening the scope of what a “successful hire” looks like to include more of these.
What kind of soft skills are we talking about? We’ll go on to explain why these can make such a difference in the whole atmosphere of the workplace and why they are well worth adding into your deliberations and scoring when analysing interview performance.
Worthwhile “Soft” Skills That Are Often Overlooked
Communication
If you have someone in your workforce who is an excellent communicator, this can take many forms. It may be that they are able to help colleagues to understand some of the more complex tasks that are part of the job, or they may be an excellent mediator of different positions. They may be able to defuse difficulties and arguments before they really begin with some well-placed humour.
These are valuable qualities and if you see someone who has them in abundance then they are well-worth hiring. Having people with great communication skills on board can smooth the way for everyone else to work together much more harmoniously, or even help to teach fellow employees new skills that they can use to benefit the company.
Teamwork
There will always be some employees who are particularly adept at teamwork. They seem to gain energy from being around a team and can help to get the best out of the other members of it. People who excel at teamwork can help to produce results that are greater than the sum of the parts of the team. They encourage and help the others to move in the right direction with the project and are a competent and steady hand that can be relied upon to keep the wheels of progress turning.
People who are team players also tend to be well-liked for precisely these qualities and that can help with overall team cohesion. If there are people who are popular as part of a team, more employees will enjoy and actively want to take part in the project the team, that includes this person, is collaborating on.
Problem Solving
Everyone is wired differently and some are naturally adept at looking at a problem and seeing how to navigate the potential points of failure. Hiring people who are problem solvers can be a real boon for a company as there will be people looking creatively at the processes and ways of working in order to improve them and to make them more efficient.
People who are intuitive problem solvers can find ways around everything from malfunctioning IT equipment to difficulties in making the required level of sales. Being able to think their way around problems and find solutions that work in the interests of the company make problem solvers extremely valuable in the day to day life of the organisation.
Take the time to listen to the solutions that they come to you with, as some problem solvers will find better ways to structure the processes that make your company tick. Be prepared to hear them out and to trial new and innovative thinking as it can also be draining to be a problem solver who constantly has their ideas dismissed by management in favour of retaining the status quo. This is often done to avoid upheaval but sometimes upheaval is needed to bring in a better and more efficient way of working.
Adaptability
Some people who you interview for positions may seem to have an incredibly diverse CV with many different job roles on it. Some potential employers will see this as a negative and decide that they haven’t the focus to take on the particular role they are interviewing for, but actually what they are demonstrating to you is their adaptability. This is an asset to any organisation, particularly at a time when there are skills gaps that are desperately needing people to fill them.
The adaptable employee may not come to you with all of the skills to fill one of the employee skills gaps in your organisation but they can definitely learn them, and quickly. This is one of their strengths, learning new things doesn’t hold any fears, they have been doing it their whole career already.
Adaptability is a key asset to any organisation and people who can step into any situation comfortably and with assurance are the kind of employees that every company could do with having just a few more of.
Stress Management
In any high-pressure workplace, having employees getting angry with each other and losing their tempers due to stress is something that can have a very negative effect on the whole team. This is why you need people who have cool heads and can manage the most stressful parts of the job effortlessly.
There are always people who, in comparison to their colleagues, look like a leaf soaring on an air current while everyone else is negotiating difficult obstacles. If you can find people who manage stress well, this can also spread to the rest of the team. People who are calm and assured radiate this and give everyone else around them more confidence in themselves.
Hiring for Soft Skills Will Make Your Company Better
Interviewing and hiring with soft skills in mind as much as the technical skills will make your company better, both as a place to work for the employees and a better performing business as a whole. The skills outlined above can make a real and tangible impact on the bottom line as well as making it easier to hire top talent in your field. A small change in hiring practices can go a long way toward ensuring continued future success and it is well worth considering.
Read some of our inspiring career stories?
