You wouldn’t interview a candidate with zero electrical experience or knowledge for an electrician’s job—experience and credentials are obviously a necessity. Those would be hard skills—bullet points on a resume. But there is another aspect to look for in new hires: soft skills, or aspects of the candidate’s personality that’ll affect their success in a role, are equally important to consider.
According to The Wall Street Journal, of the 900 executives polled, 92 percent valued soft skills equally or more than technical skills. And it’s not just executives’ opinions that back up the value of soft skills. Professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Dr. Steve Kaplan, found that traits that lead to execution, such as aggressiveness, follow-through, and speed, are better indicators of C-suite success. Which is why a new hire checklist of valuable soft skills to look for is key in the hiring process.
- Does your new hire portray flexibility and enthusiasm?
This will help describe both their attitude towards a new experience and their method for learning and understanding the new experience.
- Does your new hire take initiative and direction?
This point will reveal several traits: their personal accountability, how they prioritize tasks, and how they respond to receiving direction or, if their role calls for it, how they provide direction to others.
- Does your new hire keep their ego in check?
This is about distinguishing between ‘I’ and ‘we’ statements. The fewer ‘we’ statements, the lesser the chance that they work well with a team.
- Does your new hire demonstrate curiosity and a desire to learn?
If your new hire isn’t trying to better him/herself, they most likely won’t be trying to better the company either.
- Does your new hire understand strengths and limitations?
Your new hire should understand and be comfortable with which aspects of the job they can expand upon, and which aspects should remain within standard protocol.
One way to get a feel for these soft skills is through interviews. But a much more reliable and in-depth method is through employee assessments. Unlike a face-to-face interview, an employee assessment doesn’t allow for any embellishment in stories or answers to make the candidate look good, ensuring you get accurate, self-reflective answers to back up those necessary soft skills.
If you want more insight on your new hires, or hires you are pursuing, contact Talexes today.
