Hard Skills to Look for When Hiring: Technical and Professional Abilities

19 of May, 2023

Looking for the right candidate for your team can be overwhelming. As a business owner or HR manager, you’re responsible for screening potential hires and making sure that they possess the technical and professional abilities that your company needs.

When assessing candidates, it can be tough to determine which skills are essential and which are not. But don’t worry—we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of hard skills in hiring and provide you with a helpful list of key abilities to consider when recruiting.

We’ll also explain how Sesame can help you source top talent without missing a beat in your recruitment process—after all, finding experienced candidates who possess the right technical know-how is vital to any successful business. Let’s get started!

Technical Skills: The Must-Have Hard Skills

Technical skills are often the first hard skills employers look for when recruiting potential hires. These skills involve any technical experience or training related to a specific profession or job.

Let’s take a customer service job, for example. You might want to look for a candidate with knowledge of:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) software
• Microsoft Office Suite applications such as Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint
• Professional communication over the telephone and email

Technical skills generally require formal training, certifications or other proof that applicants have indeed successfully acquired the necessary know-how to perform certain tasks.

This is also true of specialized professional hard skills such as accounting, web development, medical coding and engineering – each of these areas requires specialized knowledge that must be verified before hiring.

Communication Skills: Verbal and Written Fluency

No matter the job role, it is essential to find candidates who can communicate effectively. Recruits should be able to express themselves, both verbally and in writing, in the appropriate environment. This means that they should be able to engage in “conversations” with their peers, management and customers. They should be able to communicate information accurately, efficiently and concisely.

Verbal communication skills are especially important for roles that require frequent interaction with customers or clients. This includes professions such as customer service representatives, salespeople and technical support specialists. Candidates should be articulate and have a good command of the language they are using in order to effectively respond to customer inquiries and solve problems quickly.

On the other hand, written communication is a must-have for positions that require producing reports or presentations; composing emails; providing clear instructions; or creating proposals. Candidates should have strong writing skills with an attention to detail so that documents will not need additional editing by colleagues.

Having proficient communication skills can help bridge any gaps in understanding between team members or business partners, which is why they are essential competencies for any recruit you hire.

Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills: Critical Thinking Is Key

When you’re recruiting, the most important hard skill to look for is analytical and problem-solving skills. Why? Because having the ability to think critically and logically about a situation or issue can help any employee make better decisions—leading to improved performance and more successful business outcomes.

So when you’re screening candidates, it’s important to assess their analytical and problem-solving skills. Here are two questions you can ask:

1. How do you go about finding solutions to complex tasks?
2. Give an example of a time when you had to use critical thinking skills in order to solve a problem?

These questions should give you an idea of how the candidate approaches a challenge and how well they use their critical thinking skills.

Additionally, it’s useful to consider what other methods they employ when it comes to analyzing complex problems. For instance, do they take a systematic approach by gathering data before reaching their conclusion? Or do they use intuition first then research second?

Ultimately, the ability to think critically is one of the most valuable—and underrated—skills any employee can have. Make sure that you assess your candidates for analytical and problem-solving abilities as part of your recruitment process!

Time Management and Organization: Managing Priorities and Meeting Deadlines

Time management and organization skills are essential when it comes to managing priorities and meeting deadlines. Every business needs team members who can stay organized and prioritize tasks while working quickly and efficiently. Here are the key skills to look for when hiring:

• Ability to plan and organize: Look for candidates who can plan ahead, set goals, manage their workload, and commitment to seeing projects through.
• Handle multiple tasks: The best recruits can multitask without dropping any balls. They should also be able to recognize what’s most important and handle things without getting overwhelmed or stressed about it.
• Execution of plans: How good are they at carrying out planned activities? Are they able to stick with the plan even when things don’t go as expected?
• Meeting deadlines: Can they do what is expected on time? Will they be prepared with the project deliverables by the expected due date?

Evaluate candidates based on how well they demonstrate that their past performance reflected these skills, as well as how well they communicate with you about time management techniques during the interview process. With Sesame, you can quickly access all relevant information you need to make an informed decision on which candidate is best suited for your team.

Leadership and Motivational Skills: Guiding and Inspiring Teams

When hiring new staff, it’s important to seek individuals with great leadership and motivational skills. This includes having a solid understanding of how to guide and inspire teams, motivate staff, and coordinate activities to drive productivity.

Leaders today must be able to:

• Foster a workplace environment of collaboration and communication among team members
• Communicate clearly and effectively
• Recognize personal strengths and weaknesses as well as those in others
• Delegate tasks efficiently
• Set expectations for team members and hold them accountable
• Motivate teams through positive reinforcement

Having excellent leadership skills can help ensure that your team achieves ultimate success within the organization. People who have strong leadership abilities can help build morale, create a clear plan of action for everyone working on the project, respond quickly to issues that arise during its execution, and stay on track with the goals set by the business.

Moreover, they can inspire their team members through their example while also providing valuable feedback.

Adaptability and Continuous Learning: Growth Mindset Is Essential

Another hard skill to keep an eye out for is adaptability. Candidates with strong adaptability are those who can easily adjust to new situations and challenges, as well as new technologies. After all, no one expects the job description to stay the same from day one. Showing off a candidate’s ability to grow and develop within their role is crucial in any recruitment process.

That’s why having a growth mindset is so important when assessing potential hires. A growth mindset means that you’re open to learning new skills and knowledge — no matter how long you’ve been in your industry — and can successfully navigate unforeseen responsibilities or events in the workplace.

You can identify potential hires with a growth mindset by asking questions like:

• How do you go about and keep up with industry trends?
• How do you make sure your skills stay relevant?
• What have you done lately that has required a great deal of adaptability?

These questions will give you an insight into how well they can think on their feet, as well as how interested they are in learning new things — essential traits for any potential hire, no matter the industry. To get more HR insights, keep reading Sesame‘s blog!