Every job that is carried out by a human contains a mix of what we call “hard skills” and “soft skills”, and the mix of these varies according to the job, the organization, and often the organization’s willingness to train candidates in any potential skill gaps they might have.
Broadly speaking, “hard skills” refer to tangible or technical skills, such as degrees, knowledge of a particular language, aptitude in a computer application, financial analysis skills and so on. The way to consider “hard skills” from a practical perspective is that a candidate’s proficiency in these areas can usually be assessed by some kind of test, or a particular measurement of competence, such as a certification or a degree.
“Soft skills” on the other hand, are much harder to quantify, and cover things like leadership skills, problem solving ability, multitasking skills, communication skills, reliability, and so on. In the recruitment industry we often call “soft skills” the “intangibles” of a role, and these skills often correlate very closely to the overall “fit” of an employee within an organization.
As a general rule “soft skills” cannot be assessed by reading a candidate’s CV, simply because EVERYONE says they have strong leadership skills, great communication skills, strong attention to detail, and so on. What are great leadership skills? What are great communication skills?
CBR Recruitment assists our clients by assessing the “soft skills” of candidates through the candidate registration process, where every candidate who registers with us undertakes a preliminary competency-based interview with an experienced Recruitment Consultant where they are asked to provide examples of situations where they: planned and organized their time; communicated with influence; solved a problem; contributed to a team; led others to achieve outcomes; and so on. This assessment can be bolstered with CBR Recruitment’s DiSC behavioral profiling service, where a candidate’s natural work style, team cohesion and behavior in the workplace can be assessed.
The bottom line is that if an outstanding candidate is lacking a hard skill, such as lack of experience in a particular computer application, this can easily be resolved with some training, however a general manager who is lacking a soft skill such as effective leadership ability is a much bigger problem!
