Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

At most companies, executives are demanding the continuous upskilling of their workforce. And especially in the “soft skills” area, where in many cases, they are equal in importance to technical skills. And if hiring is going to do its part. It must add more innovative and accurate approaches for assessing each of a candidate’s required soft skills. 

The Most In-Demand Soft Skills

Every company must of course determine which soft skills are most important for their jobs. However, you can shorten your process for identifying them by looking at the top soft skills that most executives are demanding. For example, Google found intellectual curiosity and learning agility to be its number one critical skill. A Harris Poll survey also found a “willingness to learn (81%) to be the top soft skill (also see the learning ability sidebar). Followed by dependability, communication skills, adaptability, creative problem-solving, and taking initiative. The World Economic Forum when a step further and predicted the needed skills for 2025. Their top two skills were analytical thinking/innovation and active learning. They were followed by. complex problem-solving, creativity, and leadership/social influence. 

“Close-to-the-job” Is The Most Accurate Assessment Approach

Most standard interview questions for soft skills come up short because interviewees are so well practiced, that their soft skills are exaggerated during their interviews. So everyone needs innovative assessment options that can supplement your interviews. Research shows that the highest statistical predictive value assessments are known as “content assessments.” They involve putting the candidate in a situation as close as possible to the content of the real job. For example, most instinctively perform a job content assessment when they are hiring a chef. By asking them to prepare a frequently ordered but difficult dish in your kitchen. In the same manner, the key to soft skill assessment success during corporate hiring is placing candidates in close-to-the-job situations. Where they must actually demonstrate the soft skills that you need. 

The Top Innovative “Close-To-The-Job” Options

Below are the six most effective “close-to-the-job” soft skill assessment options that my research has identified as the most accurate predictors of a candidate’s soft skills. The easiest to implement options appear first.

OPTION #1 – Name The Soft Skills Needed For This Job Duty

The easiest to implement assessment option is to ask the candidate to list the primary soft skills required in order to successfully complete one or more of the job’s important duties. 

A quick example – tell the candidate that one of their major job duties will be increasing the collaboration and cooperation between your team and other internal teams that rely on your team’s output. And because fulfilling that responsibility will require a variety of communication skills and practices. Please, from your perspective and experience. List the top five communications skills that will be required to reach the goal of building effective two-way cooperation and communications with other teams and their leaders. For each listed skill, explain when and why it will be required. 

Why it’s effective – before actually assessing any specific soft skills. It’s okay to assume that a top candidate would already know the top soft skills, and when they will be needed for completing each major job responsibility. Those that can’t quickly name the required soft skills for this job are unlikely to possess them.

Actions to take – start by explaining that you expect top candidates to know which specific soft skills are required for this job. Next, select and name an important job duty or job-related problem that will require soft skills. Briefly outline it. And then ask them to list one or two soft skills, and why each would be required in order to execute that duty successfully. And then for each subsequent major job duty, once again ask them to briefly name the most critical required soft skill and why it would be essential. 

Focus your assessment on – begin by assessing how many of the critical soft skills that they mentioned that were previously determined to be essential for that duty. Next assess how well they explained why each skill would be essential.

OPTION #2 –Assess Soft Skills And Behaviors When They’re Not Expecting It 

This option focuses on assessing their soft skills and their attitude factors outside of the interview, when they’re not expecting it. This surprised practice has been used by notable companies like Zappos and Southwest Airlines.

A quick example – even when candidate assessment must be 100% remote. There are still opportunities to assess a candidate’s communication and relationship building skills, when their guard is down. So start your “when they’re not expecting it” assessment by scheduling ten minutes of free time before the hiring manager joins a finalist’s online interview. And let the candidate know that this waiting time would be a good time to informally chat off the record with teammates that will part of the interview. Also, assign an individual teammate to ask the candidate to stay on the line after the manager leaves. For an informal one on one “welcome to the team” chat. And finally ask receptionists, schedulers and recruiting coordinators that have talked to or interacted with the candidate electronically. To provide their candid assessment of the candidate’s communications and attitude factors outside of the formal interview.

Why it’s effective – when you must assess the candidate on soft skills like relationship building and putting the customer first. Or on attitude factors like their commitment to the company and what really motivates them. Realize that many candidates purposely “fake their attitude” and their behavior during interviews. So it makes sense to purposely assess these factors outside of the interview “when they’re not expecting it”. An added benefit of this option is that it purposely involves almost all team members in candidate assessment.

Action steps – for in person interviews, you must look for or create outside of the interview situations where candidates are most likely to act “as their real self”. These “off guard situations” might include travel and interview scheduling discussions and with staff. As well as purposely set up informal events for top candidates, including one-on-one coffee, snack, or lunch meetings with a team member. Zappos for example once took the candidates drinking that evening. Then in advance, ask the appropriate teammates, shuttle drivers, receptionists, secretaries, café workers, recruiting coordinators, or even hotel employees where they were staying. To help out by closely observing how candidates act in each essential soft skill or attitude area. Of course, you should request immediate feedback if anyone sees a major soft skill or attitude problem. It’s also a good idea to reward those who provided insightful information with a prepaid Starbucks card. 

Focus your assessment on – first look for a significant shift in their attitude or behavior outside of the interview. If you’re looking for relationship building, assess how quickly and effectively that happened outside of the interview. If you “hire for attitude, and train for skills,” It makes sense to assess their attitude, how they treat others, their motivation, and commitment to the company outside of the interview. Also, be on the outlook for anyone that may become a toxic employee.

OPTION #3 – “Find The Problems” In This Existing Process

Because creative problem-solving and analytical thinking are almost always among the top soft skills. One assessment option that requires less candidate “thinking time” than actually solving a complete problem. Is to present them with an outline of a current existing (but flawed) process. And then ask them to identify its major flaws. 

A quick example – often the first thing that a new L&D course developer must do is to identify the steps in the course development process where significant preventable delays are occurring. So present the interviewee with a “big picture” process map covering your existing but flawed course development process. And after some reflection time, ask candidates to identify the top five areas where in their experience, preventable delays are most likely to occur.

Why it’s effective – this option is based on the assumption that the first essential step in creating a new solution is identifying the flaws in the current solution or process. Under this option, you assess a candidate’s critical thinking and analytical skills by asking them to “find the problems” within an existing job-related process at your company. And because you already know the flaws, it’s easy to assess their problem identification skills

Action steps – This option requires some preparation time. Because you need to find (or create) a one-page outline of a current process or solution in their field. Present them with the written process outline and explain that it has some flaws. Then note that your goal is to see if they can quickly use their critical thinking and problem identification skills to spot flaws in an existing process. Give them a few minutes to review the process. And then ask them to identify at least four flawed process steps or elements that will require the use of soft skills. And starting with their first selected process step. Ask them to explain the primary flaw or omission and why it is likely to be problematic. Whoever picks the process must provide each assessor in advance with a list of the identified major flaws and omissions that involve soft skills. You can use this “identify the problems” approach either within or outside the formal interview. It can be done in person or remotely.

Focus your assessment – the first assessment should be if they identified at least four likely flaws. Then determine how many of their identified flaws matched your prepared list of the real flaws. Next, assess how accurately they explained how the flaws would be damaging. You should add assessment points for discovering any major potential flaws that your team missed. 

OPTION #4 – “Walk Me Through The Steps” On How You Would Solve This Problem

In most jobs with high-impact responsibilities, the ability to come up with creative and innovative solutions is often one of the most critical soft skills. However to shorten the time required. This “walk me through the steps” option only asks finalist candidates to reveal the major steps in their solution development approach. So they don’t have to go over every solution detail.

A quick example – the best team lead candidate for this job will need a highly effective solution development process. And because this team is experiencing a high level of employee turnover. We would like you to verbally “walk us through” the major steps that you would take to reduce it by 20%. We don’t need a lot of tactical details on each solution development step. However we specifically want to know which soft skills that you would utilize during each of your major solution steps, and why. Expect their mentioned skills to include rapid learning, innovation, communications, adaptability and analytical skills.

Why it’s effective – because today creative problems of is a major part of every job. However, it’s important to get the candidate to go beyond describing a process from a past job. So under this option, you give them an actual problem from this job to solve. But instead of having the candidate describe their entire solution. This quicker option only asks the candidate to highlight each of their problem-solving steps that involve significant soft skills. Also, note that you may as a bonus, gain an outline of a new solution that may be usable for your team.

Action steps – start by asking the manager or an incumbent to spend 1 to 3 hours identifying a current problem that requires multiple critical soft skills to solve. This option can be part of the interview, or it can occur before or after it. Next explain to the candidate that for about twenty minutes you will be assessing their problem-solving process, with an emphasis on the soft skills that will be needed. Then, give the problem that you want them to solve a self-explanatory name. And then provide a one-minute verbal description (or one-page sheet) outlining the problem. Give them a few minutes to reflect. And then ask them to “walk us through the steps” by listing each major solution development step (that involves significant soft skills) that they would take when developing their solution. For each solution development step that they select. Ask them to list one or two soft skills and why each would be essential at that step. Each assessor must be provided in advance with a list of the essential solution development steps that the company normally uses.

Focus your assessment on – first assess whether the candidate’s problem-solving steps are similar to or if they exceed ours. Next, assess if they accurately identified which important steps heavily require soft skills. And finally assess them on the quality of their explanation covering why these soft skills would be essential during that step. It’s optional, but you can also assess whether there is anything from their problem-solving process and their proposed solution that your company could adopt.

OPTION #5 – Give The Finalist A Mini-Project To Take-Home

Even better than each of the close-to-the-job options. Literally the best way to assess a candidate is by examining their current work. So some corporations and many startups ask finalists candidates to complete what are known as “take-home mini-projects” as their final assessment step. Their virtual mini project will cover one area (in this case soft skills) that still requires additional assessment. Those mini-projects are also often called “Applijects” (for applicant projects). 

A quick example –because we strive to keep our L&D offerings on leading-edge. We need to constantly add the most current leading-edge courses to our catalog. And because we still have a concern about the strength of your own learning ability (our #1 required soft skill). As the final step in your assessment. We would like you to research and share what you conclude to be the top five most critical “next generation” courses that we should consider adding, and why. This virtual take-home project must be completed within seven days. If you choose, you can request “right direction” feedback from team member Mary Smith once within the first three days of your learning. 

Why it’s effective – this option is the second best “doing the job” approach. Because it involves doing the same type of work that the candidate will do on the job, in the form of a virtual mini project. This project allows the manager to do a deep dive assessment into the one final soft skill area were they still have doubts. Soft skills that are often covered include learning ability, problem-solving ability, organization and time management. And because the mini-project is usually done independently and without team involvement, it minimizes the use of team time. As an added benefit, this take-home project also serves as a mini job preview. Because it also provides the candidate with a final opportunity to determine if they want to do this type of work in your team. This project option should never be used to get free work out of a candidate that realistically is unlikely to be hired.

Action steps – after interviews are completed. This assessment option is only used when the manager determines that a finalist candidate still has an important soft skill “weakness area ” that requires further assessment before making an offer. As a first step, the manager or a team member must select a mini-project in a job function duty that involves the identified weakness. You can also select multiple projects and give the candidate a choice. If they agree, the candidate is given a 1-to-2-page written description of the project. Which should include its prioritized goals, deliverables, and the final results assessment criteria. The manager should also reveal the compensation, the due date (usually within two weeks) and answer any questions.

In many cases, the project is done without significant team interaction. However, if teamwork, communications, relationship building, and fit are among the candidate’s weak soft skills. The candidate should be allowed limited access to the team. And each teammate’s assessments of their soft skills should be included in the project assessment. Next, to ensure a fair assessment, the manager should select at least one other team member to independently assess the final work. And finally, after the completion of this project, the final offer or turn down should be made during a live meeting.

Focus your assessment – because the assessment criteria were specified in advance. The project reviewers should be given a checklist covering all of the soft and hard skill assessment factors. 

OPTION #6 – Have Them Do The Job Alongside The Team

Although it’s difficult to arrange. This last but most effective “doing the job” assessment approach requires that the finalist candidate do some work alongside the team. And under two of the “available time” alternatives. The candidate actually works with the team either on nights/weekends or as a full-time contractor.

A quick example – on interview day, as both a realistic job preview and an assessment opportunity. All finalist candidates are asked to shadow one of your employees in their job for the remainder of the day. And then make your offer decision based on team feedback and whether they still desire the job.

Why it’s effective – because “doing the job” and working side-by-side (whether physically or virtually) with teammates on an actual team project allows both sides to assess the capabilities of the other. This option is extremely powerful for accurately assessing soft skills like team fit, collaboration, communications, relationship building and team skills. In addition, working with the team also serves as a realistic job preview. This option can also be used when the top finalist candidate requires “hands-on” information about the team before they will accept an offer.

Action steps – you can choose from these three “available time options”. 

• The “interview day” work option – this easiest to execute option only requires that you ask the candidate to stay on for the rest of the day after a face-to-face interview. To do some unpaid actual work with the team. For example, Toyota has asked candidates to spend the rest of the day working on the assembly line with their future team. Others have used this time to have a candidate shadow a current employee. Or to teach one or more teammates something important during a short informal sharing session. 
• The “off-hours” work option – this nights and weekends team immersion option. Ask the final candidate to work alongside the team during after work hours in order to further assess their soft skills. Those soft skills often include relationship building, team skills, communications and passion for the job. This is a superior option is especially when everyone needs to agree that the candidate is a good team fit. This option can occur in person, or it can be virtual. If the finalist accepts, they are paid as contractors for an agreed-upon time period. To work directly with the team on a few nights, weekends or holidays when the candidate and some teammates are both available. One drawback is that this option requires a strong team commitment to great hiring, because some team members must agree to work after hours.
• The full-time work option –when you have a finalist candidate that is available for full-time work. And you are still unsure about their soft skills. Under this superior full immersion approach. The finalist is hired as a contractor for full-time work over a one or two-week time period. It’s a superior approach because the finalist spends many more continuous hours working alongside the team.

Focus your assessment on – since the primary goal of this option is the assessment of one or more needed soft skills. The assessment should be limited to a more in-depth assessment of those pre-identified soft skills.