{"id":2585,"date":"2008-12-02T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-02T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/hr-advice\/soft-skills-tips-for-evaluating-soft-skills\/"},"modified":"2019-11-10T22:04:35","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T06:04:35","slug":"soft-skills-tips-for-evaluating-soft-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/soft-skills-tips-for-evaluating-soft-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Soft skills: Tips for evaluating soft skills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5042 alignleft\" style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Soft_skills-Tips_for_evaluating_soft_skills.jpg\" alt=\"Soft_skills-Tips_for_evaluating_soft_skills\" width=\"217\" height=\"147\" \/> Soft skills elude many hiring managers. That\u2019s because soft skills rarely fit into standardized tests. Whereas it\u2019s relatively easy to run tests on typing, editing, math or filing, it\u2019s much harder to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/employment-assessment-test-tools-catching-on\/\">test<\/a> for integrity, honesty, relationship building and teamwork. To determine soft skills, <span class=\"pearl-hilighted-word\" style=\"color: black; background: #ffff66;\">human<\/span> resources professionals and hiring managers need to design interviews with soft skills in mind. Strategic interview techniques can go a long way toward helping find the right candidates.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Top five ways to assess soft skills<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. To check <strong>writing skills<\/strong>, review the candidate\u2019s resume and cover letter. A great resume and cover letter may indicate that the candidate has good writing skills. However, you might want to try exchanging <span class=\"pearl-hilighted-word\" style=\"color: black; background: #ffff66;\">email<\/span>s with the jobseeker, in case they had a friend or consultant work on the application.<\/p>\n<p>2. For <strong>verbal skills<\/strong>, try using open-ended questions during the interview. Encourage the candidate to provide detailed explanations. Using questions and statements such as \u201cCan you tell me about a time when\u2026.?\u201d or \u201cGive an example of a situation in which you\u2026\u201d can help you test verbal skills.<\/p>\n<p>3. When evaluating <strong>interpersonal skills<\/strong>, ask the candidate to describe past work relationships. Ask questions such as \u201cTell me about the best boss you ever had\u201d or \u201cDescribe a time when a project went wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>4. If you\u2019re looking to explore <strong>integrity and honest<\/strong>y, ask the candidate a question such as \u201cDescribe your greatest success and biggest failure?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>5. To weigh <strong>personality<\/strong>, try questions such as \u201cWhat makes you happy?\u201d or \u201cWhat really bugs you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Employers can also try using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/use-of-psychological-tests\/\">psychometric assessments<\/a> and employment assessment tests to uncover personality quirks, work styles and soft skills. But interview provides a great opportunity to test for those same things in person.<\/p>\n<p>Related to evaluating soft skills<\/p>\n<div>\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/interviewing-potential-employees\/\">Interviewing potential employees<\/a><\/div>\n<div>\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/avoiding-interview-pitfalls\/\">Avoiding interview pitfalls<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soft skills elude many hiring managers. That\u0092s because soft skills rarely fit into standardized tests. Whereas it\u0092s relatively easy to run tests on typing, editing, math or filing, it\u0092s much harder to test for integrity, honesty, relationship building and teamwork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[149,164],"tags":[154],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2585"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7021,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions\/7021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}