Tag: Staff Management

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Candidate Client

“Hard Skills” and “Soft Skills” – what are they and why is it important to know?

Hard Skill And Soft Skill

Every job that is carried out by a human contains a mix of what we call “hard skills” and “soft skills”. These vary according to the job, the organisation, and often the organisation’s willingness to train candidates in any potential skill gaps they might have.

What are Hard Skills?

Broadly speaking, “hard skills” refer to tangible or technical skills. This can include degrees, knowledge of a particular language, or aptitude in a computer application. 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 measurement of competence, such as a certification or a degree.

What are Soft Skills?

“Soft skills” on the other hand, are much harder to quantify. They cover things like leadership, problem solving ability, multitasking, communication, and reliability. In the recruitment industry we often call these skills the “intangibles” of a role. They 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. EVERYONE says they have strong leadership skills, great communication skills, or a strong attention to detail. What are great leadership skills? What are great communication skills?

How do we assess soft skills?

CBR Recruitment assists our clients by assessing the “soft skills” of candidates through the candidate registration process. Every candidate who registers with us undertakes a preliminary competency-based interview with an experienced Recruitment Consultant. 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; and led others to achieve outcomes. 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!

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Client

Competency Based Interviewing – What is it and why use it?

Competency Based Interviewing

The current industry leading practice is to interview candidates using a technique known as “Competency Based Interviewing” (also called “structured” or “behavioural” interviewing). Competency based interviewing is based upon the concept of linking three parameters – knowledge, skills and attitude. Each question is designed to test one or more specific skills and the answer is then matched against pre-decided criteria and marked or rated accordingly. For example, the interviewer may want to test the candidate’s ability to deal with stress by firstly asking how the candidate generally handles stress and then asking the candidate to provide an example of a situation where he or she worked under pressure.

 

How is Competency Base Interviewing Different?

Competency based interviewing differs from traditional interviewing (also called unstructured interviewing) as traditional interviews are essentially a conversation where the interviewer asks a number of questions that are relevant to what they are looking for, but without any specific aim in mind other than getting an overall impression of the candidate as an individual. Questions are usually quite random and can also be quite open. For example, a question such as “What can you offer our company?” is meant to gather general information about the candidate but does not test any specific skill or competency. In an unstructured interview, the candidate is judged on the general impression that he or she leaves and the process is therefore likely to be more subjective.

 

What are the Benefits?

Competency based interviews are more systematic, with each question targeting a specific skill or competency. Candidates are asked questions relating to their behaviour in specific circumstances, which they then need to back up with concrete examples. The interviewer will then dig further into the examples by asking for specific explanations about the candidate’s behaviour or skills.

 

An example of a competency-based interview question is:

“This is a busy role which manages high volumes of client contact and juggles a number of competing priorities. Can you tell us about a time when you have had to coordinate multiple work outputs with competing deadlines? What strategies did you employ and what was the outcome?”

 

This question tests organisational skills, working at a fast pace, dealing with stressful situations, providing high quality client service and achieving results.

 

Utilising Methodology

The “STAR” methodology can be useful tool to frame competency-based interview questions.

 

Situation

Ask the candidate to set the context by describing the circumstance where they used the skills or qualities you are seeking.

Task

What was their role / involvement in the situation?

Actions

What did they do and how did they do it?

Results

What did they achieve? What was the outcome of their actions?

 

Regardless of the specific position being recruited it is always worthwhile asking a question about communication skills, teamwork and organisational skills as these qualities are important requirements of most jobs.

 

Secondary Interviews

Another effective technique in assisting to select the best candidate for the position is to conduct a secondary interview with the top one or two candidates. This interview should be a much less formal unstructured interview – at a café for example. This is a good opportunity to meet the candidate in a less stressful environment than the initial interview, and will give you an excellent insight into their potential fit into the culture of your organisation, and you should be able to effectively gauge how you would work with the candidate on a day-to-day basis.

 

For assistance with your next recruitment campaign or with developing competency-based interview questions, please call CBR Recruitment on 02 6103 7000 or email: hello@CBRrecruitment.com.au