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How to assess soft skills in an interview

Tess,   25th September 2020

How to assess soft skills in an interview

How can you tell when a candidate looks good on paper, that they’ll be good in real life?

‘Hard skills’ such as a university degree, or experience in a specific role/field, are not enough to confirm, if a candidate will be good at the role you’re hiring for.

You need a mixture of both hard skills and soft skills in order to hire top talent. Soft skills are the personal attributes a person possesses. However, they’re hard to quantify, and can be difficult to measure in an interview. This is because, interviews can be stressful and cause anxiety, especially in a group setting, or with more than one interviewer.

In this article we’ll look at some soft skill examples, how to assess soft skills in an interview and how we, at GB Solutions, can help you source and hire quality talent.

Let’s take a look at some soft skills:

Our top tips on how to assess soft skills in an interview

  • Ask behavioural questions, that are open-ended. This will allow the candidate to answer in their own way. “Tell me about a time when…” shows you how they would personally approach and deal with a situation
  • Don’t form an opinion on a candidate based on your own views. Think of how they would fit in with the WHOLE team and what they could bring (or not bring), to the business
  • Structure your interview. This will ensure you’re asking all the same questions, to candidates in the same order, which reduces bias and allows for a more objective approach
  • Use a scoring system, as this will make it easier to assess each candidate. You can do this in a number of ways. You may score them yes/no, or low, medium, high for interpersonal skills

How GB Solutions can help….

As a specialist recruitment agency, we don’t just send you CVs. We get to know our candidates and the clients we work with. For this reason, we know who will fit in your business from a business and personal point of view. We know it takes more than just a great CV for a candidate to fit into your team.

At GB Solutions we work with you to source top talent, from our talent bank and beyond. For more information, or to discuss any current roles you’d like help recruiting for, be in touch here.