Importance of Skill Assessments In Hiring Process

Are skills assessments important for your hiring process? Yes, soft skills are unarguably vital measures of employability. Imagine working with a team of high performers who are rude and impulsive. There is a chance that your high performers might be competitive, but in a very toxic way. Therefore, it is very essential to hire skeptically and not preferentially. 

Bad hires can be a curse to a properly functioning team, as they affect the performance of your team as a whole. Hence, this article aims to preach the importance of adopting scientific hiring tools that enable you to make successful hiring decisions.

What is skill assessment?

Skills assessments are advanced hiring tools that not only gauges the applicants' potential, but also evaluates their personality. A good candidate must be suitable for your organization on the basis of their job-specific characteristics and personal work ethic. Skills assessments thoroughly analyze the profile of your candidates and provide accurate recommendations of training and development required to nurture them. 

Skill tests are the best tools that add validity to your selection process of fresher candidates. It examines the abilities and potentials of the experienced candidates'. This assessment helps you avoid biases that may occur in job interviews. The exception to this hiring technology extends to efficient time saving, cost-effectiveness, and objectivity. 

But, what are the soft skills that your candidates must have?

Let's start with what you personally prefer in a candidate in the category of ‘soft skills'. One of the top recruitment challenges today is to find the right candidate with an appropriate proportion of technical, personal and social skills. According to a survey by Monster, around 58% of hiring managers experience difficulty in choosing their best talents. Here are some categories of soft skills that piques a recruiters' interest in a good candidate:

Interpersonal skills: 

The ability to collaborate professionally and maintain good relationships with their colleagues is a ‘must have' trait of an ideal candidate. More than anything else, a workplace requires positive, active and competent employees to enhance the working experience. Interpersonal skills increase productivity and create opportunities for healthy associations. To support the claim, McKinsey reports that a well-connected team experiences 20-25% of productivity.

Technical skills/ Job-specific skills:

Company leaders often look for appropriate job-specific soft skill sets in their potential employees. For instance, a sales representative might not be good at coding but must be good at communication. The skill of persuasion, collaboration and emotional intelligence are job-specific qualities that will enable the employees to manage and achieve their targets better. 

Leadership skills:

Leadership skills of a candidate make them eligible for handling the affairs of frontline professionals. This is one of the ‘untold' characters that every hiring manager looks for while selecting an applicant.

It helps them foster the best talents for the future of their organization. Statistics from Gallup claims, only one in ten people have natural leadership traits, while 20% of people can be trained. And the rest majority are the bad hiring choices you make.

Communication skills:

Communication plays a vital role in every kind of organization. It includes verbal, tonal and bodily responses to a certain workplace situation. It reflects the engagement of the employee. According to the connect culture report, 71% of the employees who are well-connected are observed to have delivered better outputs. The skills help to fill the gaps between the hierarchical layers of organization and to coordinate well with the members of the team. 

Listening skills:

“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.”-Ralph G. Nichols (Father of Listening)

Communication skills are intimately linked with listening skills. A good listener interprets the correct meanings and ideas put forward by others and engages in effective discussions. Listening therefore makes another important soft skill, irrespective of the job specification. Active listening skills yield clarity in processing information. It includes attention to details, recognition of tone and intonation, registering and interpreting worldly information. 

Problem-solving:

The most significant soft skill identified was the ability to solve problems, with 62% of recruiters seeking people who can find solutions, according to ICBMs. Ability to deal with adversity experienced in a realistic situation of the work environment adds up to effective application of other technical skills.

Problem-solving concerns presence of mind, stress handling, meeting deadlines, etc. It more or less directs the quality of work an employee can deliver. 

Emotional intelligence:

Emotional intelligence is the ability of your employees to handle themselves under stress and unfavorable situations. Employees' emotion management skills make them capable of solving issues effectively. It enables them to maintain a balance between the professional and personal feelings and affects. It determines the ability of an individual to stay involved and be present at the work set up under any circumstances. 

Personality traits: 

The personality of an employee more or less impacts the workforce, as it influences how others respond to their tasks and roles. For instance, if one of the employees is ignorant and takes up roles very carelessly, then there is a possibility that the rest of the team members would behave similarly. 

How to identify these soft skills while assessing your applicants?

• Psychometric test: Analyze the cognitive factors impacting the candidate's organizational behavior.
• Behavioral test: Gauge the compatibility of your firm's culture with your candidates' personality and behavior.
• Aptitude test: Assess your applicant's basic logical abilities such as problem-solving, statistical reasoning, analytical thinking, etc.
• Technical skill or Domain test: Evaluate the job-specific skills that enable your candidates to take up tasks and complete them as per your expectations. 
• Communication skills test: Judge your candidate's ability to convey and understand workplace situations. It also impacts their compatibility with your existing team. 

Sum Up

Unlike pen and paper assessments, online skill tests are more accessible and easier to administer. It records the candidate responses through its seamless cloud space. Psychometric skills assessments analyze profiles of individuals for interpretation of required competencies. 

It ensures right hire for your organization by allowing you to choose genuine talents and eliminating dishonest applicants. PMaps can help you meet your hiring goals. You can connect on our website or email to discover more hiring solutions!

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