12 Effective Ways to Assess Candidates'

Soft Skills
Dr. John Sullivan
July 25, 2017

When asked, recruiters say that screening candidates for soft skills is one of the
top areas they want to learn more about. Thats because soft skills (think
leadership, relationship building, communications, adaptability, strategic thinking,
learning and interpersonal skills) take up to 25% of the skills required to do the
job and to be a great teammate.

Unfortunately, these skills are arguably the most difficult to assess in a

candidate. In fact, most traditional soft skill assessment approaches are
ineffective -- you must find innovative alternative approaches that really work. For
example, some recruiters and hiring managers attempt to assess soft skills first
through resume content. But, these skills may not even be entered in the ATS
system and a 10 second or less initial resume scan by the recruiter means that
they will unlikely be noted.

Trying to assess soft skills during the interview is also problematic because today
most candidates judiciously prepare for interviews and purposely act so that
they put on their best front. Plus, most interviewers contribute to the assessment
problem when they simply ask a candidate questions like, Are you a team
player? With these types of questions, not providing a yes answer is more of
an intelligence test than an accurate assessment of soft skills.

Finally, asking references if a candidate has a list of soft skills almost always gets
an affirmative yes answer. So if you need to accurately assess soft skills, its
time to consider alternative approaches that have been successfully used by top
companies.

New ways to screen for soft skills

If youre seeking a top performer, its essential that you make sure that they have
most of these soft skills. So consider using one or more of the innovative
approaches listed below. These approaches are designed specifically to make
the assessment in a more job like environment.

The simplest approaches to consider (the easiest ones are listed first):

1. Have employees referring candidates assess their soft skills

If you rely on employee referrals, you will find that most employees simply wont
refer someone to their team who doesnt have the necessary soft skills. But with
a referral, you also get an additional opportunity to verify soft skills by asking the
referring employee to list and assess the soft skills of those that they refer.
2. Ask candidates to list the soft skills that would be required
for success

During the interview, ask the candidate to list (from most important to least
important) the top specific soft skills that they know will be required to excel in the
job. If they dont know what skills will be required, you should be deeply
concerned.

3. Have them force rank their soft skills

Many interviewers simply ask candidates directly Do you have this soft skill?
However, a better way that avoids an obvious yes answer is, instead, ask the
candidate to force rank their soft skills from the strongest to weakest. The force
ranked list can quickly reveal which of the soft skills they believe they have and
the ones they consider themselves to have as the strongest. If they rank any of
your essential soft skills towards the bottom of the list or not at all, you should be
concerned.

4. Have references force rank their soft skills

In a similar way, asking references if a candidate has a specific soft skill almost
always gets a yes answer. So instead, give the reference a list of soft skills and
ask them to force rank the ones that best reflect the candidate. It also makes
sense to ask the reference to give an example of how they have seen the
candidate exercise any top skill. If any references rank any of your essential soft
skills towards the bottom of the ranking or not at all, you should be concerned.

5. Give them problems that require soft skills

Instead of asking interviewees about the historical use of soft skills in situations
that may not be relevant to your firm, give them a real situation at your firm that
requires soft skills and ask them to walk you through how they would solve it. At
each step, ask them to identify which of their specific soft skills would be needed.

If youre looking for collaboration or seeking/providing feedback, make sure that

they include these actions during each crucial step. If you are looking for building
relationships and/or rapid learning - give them a work-related problem that
requires these two capabilities and then drill down to find out more.

6. Have them find omissions/problems in a current process

Before, during or after the interview, give final candidates an outline of an

existing flawed project proposal and then have them find the soft skill errors and
omissions. Be concerned if they dont quickly find omissions in soft skilled areas
like collaboration, feedback, relationship building, communications and customer
service.

A more complex alternative is to have them write up an outline of their solution to

a job-related problem that requires soft skills. And then see if they include the
necessary soft skilled related actions and components.

More difficult but more effective approaches to consider (the simplest are listed
first):

7. Give them online tests covering soft skills

There are many vendors that now offer credible soft skills testing online.
Footlocker, for example, found that the addition of a single soft skill test resulted
in new hires that produced a double-digit increase in sales. But when selecting
an online test, its important to make sure that these tests are validated for this
job family.
The best way to validate them is to give the tests to some of your strongest and
weakest soft skilled employees in the job family in order to see if they accurately
predict for your firm. Personality and attitude tests are also available but be
careful because they cant improve your quality of hire until you positively know
which personality types or attitude traits accurately predict on-the-job
performance.

8. Assess them when theyre not expecting it

When interpersonal and genuine customer service skills are essential, you must
be aware that most act differently during interviews. Either because theyre
nervous or because they are purposely trying to deceive. It may seem strange or
even a little deceptive at first. But firms like Zappos and Southwest have
assessed candidates soft skills when theyre not expecting it.

This approach asks employees, receptionists, secretaries, shuttle drivers, caf

workers, etc. to assess the attitude and the soft skills of candidates outside of the
formal hiring process. Under this approach, you systematically observe how
interview prospects act with employees, service workers and other applicants
when they think no recruiter is watching.

9. Give them a temporary project with your team

By far the most accurate way of assessing soft skills is to give candidates an
opportunity to work with the team. So when feasible, ask them to work on a night,
weekend or remote project with the team. This approach is sometimes called an
Appliject (for applicant project), and for it to be effective, it needs to have a
defined short duration and be paid.

Toyota even had candidates, after interviewing, actually work with their future
team the rest of the day and Reliant Services had top applicants after the
interview shadow employees for the rest of the day. Both of these approaches
allow employers to make more accurate soft skill assessments, while also
providing the candidate with a realistic job preview.

10. Make them do the job and observe

During the interview, if you ask most candidates if they have a specific soft skill,
such as being a leader, they will automatically say yes. So as a supplement to
the standard interview for a top candidate, make them a team lead in a 30 60-
minute group exercise involving a few existing employees. Then, observe if they
take the appropriate leadership steps. You can conduct a similar, soft skills,
exercise with a group of candidates and see which ones take a leadership role or
act as a great teammate.

11. Continue to assess post-hire

Although, it shouldnt be your first assessment option, the soft skills of new-hires
should be further assessed during onboarding and training. And those that dont
meet the standard can either be offered additional training or be released.

12. Use neuroscience assessments

Vendors like HireVue offer a combination of neuroscience assessments that are

no longer science fiction. They may include AI technology, deep machine
learning, and facial and voice recognition software to assess taped
interviews. Technology allows the assessment to go beyond the actual answers
and to assess phrases, facial expressions, voice inflection and even subtle
physical movements that humans simply couldnt catch. As a result,
neuroscience approaches are able to detect some deceptions.
Because every company has different soft skill needs, I have purposely avoided
recommending a particular set of assessment approaches. Instead, I have found
that the best approach for each company is to, initially, try the ones that seem
reasonable for your situation. But then to follow up later with data to see which
ones accurately predict on-the-job success. And dont be surprised if soft skills,
rather than being a minor issue, make up at least 25% of the requirements for a
successful new-hire.

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