The Most Important Soft Skills to Consider When Recruiting

19 of May, 2023

Hiring the right people is essential to every business. Every manager is looking for those rare individuals who have the perfect combination of hard and soft skills. But what are soft skills and why do they matter?

Soft skills are qualities that allow a person to work well with others, manage their emotions, and interact effectively. Soft skills are just as important as qualifications or business experience, yet many employers overlook them when recruiting.

In this article, we’ll break down the five most important soft skills to consider when recruiting for your team. We’ll also explain how Sesame’s innovative HR software helps you identify top candidates who possess these all-important traits. So let’s get started!

Communication Skills: Why They Matter in the Workplace

Communication is one of the most important soft skills to consider when recruiting, especially for positions where employees will be interacting with customers or other departments. Good communication involves using the proper language, correctly expressing ideas and understanding messages from other people.

It’s essential for employee productivity, as having positive communication allows teams to work together efficiently, increasing their ability to get tasks done on time and meeting deadlines. Good communication skills also help create an environment of trust and respect amongst colleagues, which leads to better team collaboration.

Moreover, in customer service roles, good communication is key in calming down irate clients while staying professional. Having confident communicators in your team will help them build stronger relationships with customers and provide better customer service experiences.

Therefore, effective communication plays a critical role in business operations and its importance cannot be overstated.

Adaptability: How It Helps Employees Thrive

When you’re looking to fill a role, it’s important to consider the adaptability of potential employees. Adaptability is the ability to adjust to different contexts, understand the needs of a situation, and proactively respond with empathy and flexibility.

Having individuals with an adaptable mindset in your team can be incredibly beneficial. It enables them to quickly assess problems, design solutions, and make decisions on their feet if necessary. As a result, your business can nimbly navigate unexpected shifts in the market or organizational changes without major disruption.

Adaptable employees are also better equipped to handle change—no matter how big or small. They don’t resist growth but are open-minded enough to be proactive about adapting their own knowledge and skillset in order to succeed in their role. And in today’s ever-evolving business landscape, this kind of flexibility is essential for long-term success.

Critical Thinking: Solving Problems and Driving Innovation

Critical thinking is one of the most important soft skills to consider when recruiting. Good problem-solving skills form the basis of a successful business, and critical thinking drives innovation. So it’s no surprise why recruiters and HR professionals are looking for candidates with this skill set.

So what exactly is critical thinking? It’s the ability to analyze facts and data, identify patterns, make decisions based on those patterns, and act on them. Furthermore, critical thinking involves being able to investigate an issue thoroughly and arrive at a conclusion that’s rational, well-informed and logical. It requires out-of-the-box thinking as well as an analytical mindset.

Here are some examples of how recruiters can spot this particular soft skill in potential job candidates:

1. Does the candidate display an ability to see an issue from multiple points of view?
2. Do they ask relevant questions to gain greater insight into the problem?
3. Are they able to break down a complex problem into small pieces in order to better understand it?
4. Can they identify underlying assumptions or risks in a difficult situation?
5. Do they come up with creative solutions or new ideas?
6. Are they able to come up with reasonable conclusions or recommendations based on their research and analysis?

By considering these qualities during the recruitment process, recruiters will be better equipped to find talented individuals who can contribute meaningfully towards driving innovation within your business — ensuring that you stay competitive in today’s ever changing market place!

Creativity: Encouraging an Entrepreneurial Spirit

Creativity is another essential soft skill to consider when recruiting. According to a Deloitte University survey, 59% of executives said that creativity was the most important factor for future success. That’s why it pays to hire people who actively seek out new ways of solving problems and coming up with innovative solutions.

By fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, it allows your team to think outside the box and develop creative solutions. It encourages risk-taking and giving voice to new ideas, which can lead to genuine innovation and positive long-term change in your company’s processes.

Look for candidates who have a portfolio of work that shows originality, as well as those who have solved complex problems or identified new opportunities.

Moreover, creativity isn’t just about developing ideas — it also involves the willingness to challenge existing beliefs. If you are looking for innovators in your organization, you’ll want employees who constantly ask questions about why things are done a certain way and can formulate alternative solutions that may be even better than the status quo.

Emotional Intelligence: Managing Emotions and Navigating Relationships

You probably already know that emotional intelligence is a hot topic in the workplace, but do you know why? It’s because having employees who are emotionally intelligent can have a huge impact on team morale and success.

Let’s face it—even the most talented team of workers won’t be much help if they can’t work together. Emotional intelligence is all about managing emotions, understanding relationships, and being able to handle interpersonal interactions in a calm manner.

So what does this mean for HR managers and business owners?

When it comes to choosing new staff, it pays to look for individuals with emotional intelligence—people who can navigate conflict and difficult conversations effectively, respond positively to feedback, recognize other people’s feelings, and form meaningful relationships.

To measure emotional intelligence during recruitment process, consider using online tests or asking the candidate questions about how they would respond if confronted with certain situations. Knowing how they would react can give you a better idea of whether they’re the right person for your team!

Time Management: Meeting Deadlines and Improving Productivity

Time management skills are important when it comes to recruiting. After all, you need to make sure that your team is productive and meets deadlines.

Fortunately, many of the soft skills that you should be looking for can help with time management from an employee perspective. For example, someone who has good organizational skills can become the master of juggling multiple tasks at once, which is key to helping a team achieve their goals on schedule.

Those who employ good communication skills can also be helpful when it comes to meeting deadlines and boosting productivity by keeping everyone on the same page. And an individual with strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities can quickly identify options to tackle issues that come up in order speed up the overall process.

With a good HR software like Sesame, you have even more options for managing employee time and performance efficiently in one place—from tracking vacation requests and hours worked to analyzing trends in real-time performance metrics and more. This means fewer missed deadlines or productivity bottlenecks down the road.