Soft Skills Assessment

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What is Soft Skills Assessment?

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Soft skills assessments systematically gather valuable insights into an individual's strengths and weaknesses regarding non-technical abilities, such as communication, teamwork, leadership, adaptability, and problem-solving. These tests help make better hiring decisions and develop employee training programs, ultimately driving team performance and business growth.

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Types of Soft Skills Assessment

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Different soft skills assessments are designed to test different abilities. Let's take a quick look at them:

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• ‍Customer Focus Competency test: It tests an individual's ability to meet customers' needs.
• Decision-Making Skills test: It tests the ability to make informed decisions using problem-solving, critical thinking, time management, and communication.
• Business Email Etiquette Skills test: It tests basic email etiquette knowledge and other necessary professional communication skills.
• Emotional Intelligence Skills test: It assesses the ability to manage emotions in the workplace through self-motivation, self-awareness, healthy relationships, and positive emotions.
• Ownership and Accountability Skills test: It assesses responsibility and accountability by testing skills such as accepting faults, being solution-oriented, and receiving feedback.
• Interpersonal Skills test: It tests the ability to build strong relationships with others through effective communication, conflict resolution, teamwork, and active listening.
• Persuasion Skills test: It assesses the ability to persuade others effectively, including understanding the principles of influencing skills.
• Research Skills test: It tests the skills necessary for conducting effective research, including primary market research, financial ratio analysis, qualitative research, and internet searching skills.
• HR Aptitude Skills test: It assesses the skills necessary for managing human resources effectively, including conflict resolution, communication, active listening, presentation skills, and relationship building.
• People Management Skills test: It tests the skills necessary for managing people effectively, including providing clarity and inspiration, employee welfare, constructive feedback, communication styles, and time management.

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Methods of Conducting a Soft Skills Assessment

Here are some innovative ways that you can use to evaluate soft skills:

• Ask candidates to identify the necessary soft skills for job success: During a job interview, ask them to articulate the soft skills they consider essential to thrive in a specific role. It will help you assess their understanding of the job requirements and their self-awareness of their strengths.
• Ask employees to refer candidates to assess their soft skills: Ask the referring employee to evaluate the soft skills of the referred candidate. It provides an additional opportunity to verify soft skills, as most employees won't refer someone who doesn't have the necessary soft skills.
• Rank soft skills based on the judgment of the references: You can provide a list of soft skills to a candidate's references and request them to rank the skills that best align with their abilities. Go one step further and ask them to share an instance when they witnessed the candidate demonstrating those skills. It validates the candidate's self-assessment and acts as a realistic indicator of how they might perform at the job.
• Provide challenges where candidates demonstrate their soft skills: While hypothetical questions can be helpful, try to present candidates with a problem that requires them to use their soft skills. Ensure that the problem aligns with your organization's needs, and instruct them to identify each soft skill required at every stage. Such an approach can help evaluate how well they can use soft skills in real-world scenarios.
• Give them online tests covering soft skills: Use credible online soft skills tests to assess candidates' soft skills. Soft skills assessment software consists of various soft skills tests, such as communication and business etiquette.
• Combine multiple assessments: Combining multiple assessments can provide a more comprehensive evaluation of a candidate's soft skills. From testing technical skills to collaboration, creativity, and emotional intelligence, comprehensive test assessments enable you to assess overall skills through a single test.

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Benefits of Soft Skills Assessment

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Soft skills assessment is an essential part of the recruitment process and has several benefits.

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• ‍Broaden and Diversify the Hiring Pipeline - Focusing on soft skills can diversify your hiring pipeline and lead to a more inclusive workforce.
• Increase Workplace Productivity and Retention - Developing soft skills can increase productivity and retention, resulting in a positive ROI.
• Improve Customer Satisfaction and Experience - Soft skills are essential for delivering excellent customer experiences and increasing revenue and customer lifetime value.
• Ease Upskilling - Prioritizing soft skills during recruitment can make upskilling in hard skills easier and lead to a happy and dedicated workforce.

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Know how Jobberman assessed soft skills to empower African youth with career opportunities to bridge skills gap

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Terms Related to Soft Skills Assessment

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• Communication skills : It is the ability to convey information and ideas effectively through various mediums.

• ‍Teamwork: It is the proficiency to cooperate with others and contribute to a collective effort towards a shared goal.

• Emotional intelligence : It is the ability to identify, assess, and control emotions, both one's own and those of others, and use them to guide thought and action.  

• Empathy : It is the ability to comprehend the feelings, perspectives, and experiences of others from their point of view instead of their own. 

• Decision-making: It is the process of making choices by analyzing information, considering alternatives, and taking action.

• Collaboration : It is the process of working cooperatively with others, leveraging diverse strengths and perspectives towards a shared objective.

• Interpersonal skills: It is the ability to build and maintain positive relationships and navigate social situations with poise and professionalism.

• Cultural competency: It is the ability to understand and adapt to cultural differences, recognizing and respecting diverse values, beliefs, and behaviors.

• Persuasion skills: It is the ability to influence or convince others to adopt a certain point of view or take a particular action.