The business case for building a diverse workforce is an easy one. Numerous studies show that diverse teams compete better, innovate faster, and generate more revenue than non-diverse teams. Although the winning formula for building a diverse workforce isn’t as clearly defined, organizations are increasingly achieving success with one lesser-known strategy: soft skills verification.
Defining soft skills
The Society for Human Resource Management defines soft skills as “behaviors, personality traits, and work habits, such as collaboration, critical thinking, perseverance, and communication, that help people prosper at work.” They guide how employees interact with their coworkers, managers, customers, clients, and vendors.
It’s easy to imagine why these abilities matter. A worker may possess excellent “hard” skills such as the ability to write complex code, design beautiful graphics, or construct fascinating data models. But without soft skills, this otherwise talented employee won’t live up to their potential. They may struggle with teamwork and hesitate to ask important questions, for example, or be disillusioned by constructive feedback.
Recruitment and culture strengthen diversity and inclusion
When recruiters and hiring managers examine soft skills during the hiring process, they shift the focus from who the candidate is to what the candidate is capable of. This change in perspective increases diversity by reducing bias in the hiring process. No hiring team is immune to bias—even those that are actively aware of its presence. To make matters more complicated, bias can take different forms.
- Human biases.The result of life experiences, these are hard to counter because they can be unintentional: people subconsciously want to select the “like me” candidate rather than the best candidate.
- Procedural biases. These occur when the processes used to find or select candidates eliminate certain categories of people. For example, job posts that search for people who are “aggressive” or “dominant” may inadvertently exclude women, who are often wrongly stereotyped as not possessing those traits.
By asking candidates about their communication skills, evaluating their confidence, or inquiring about their problem-solving abilities, employers ensure that they’re assessing candidates not by how they look or how they speak but by how they operate in a professional setting.
A focus on soft skills helps on a cultural level, too. When recruiters factor soft skills into the hiring equation, they’re more likely to choose candidates who respect their fellow coworkers. These workers are more apt to value trustworthiness and integrity.
Once these candidates are on board, employers can continue to address soft skills, offering training on communication and other aspects of professionalism. The more these types of training are offered, the stronger a culture becomes. By hiring and encouraging workers who are predisposed to inclusion, employers create a strong culture that values everyone.
How to verify soft skills in practice
The most obvious way for employers to verify soft skills is to ask candidates and workers about their abilities. In an interview, for example, a hiring manager may assess certain soft skills with related prompts or questions.
- Teamwork: “Tell me about one of your best teamwork experiences and what your contribution was.”
- Stress management: “How do you reduce your stress level in a critical situation?”
- Creativity: “If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be and why?”
Employers can also leverage tools that create data-driven insights on workers’ soft skills. For example, employers can use survey tools to ask job references to rate candidates’ behaviors relevant to specific jobs. They can ask those who previously worked with a candidate to provide feedback on how they treat coworkers and staff of different backgrounds (e.g., beliefs, gender). These assessment tools generate predictive insights that highlight candidates who will thrive (and make sure others do, too).
Final thoughts
When employers take the time to verify candidates’ soft skills, they’re doing more than due diligence. A focus on soft skills helps to reduce bias and bolsters culture, all while ensuring the success of each individual worker. A handful of questions and prompts will help hiring managers probe candidates’ abilities, and adding assessment tools to the hiring process can make skills verification easier and more effective.