Recruiters: top 10 soft skills to identify in interviews

Behavioural skills, or soft skills, are increasingly valued by recruitment […]

Behavioural skills, or soft skills, are increasingly valued by recruitment professionals. Discover the top 10 soft skills to identify in a candidate.

Entrepreneurship is a particularly sought-after soft skill. You might think that start-ups are particularly fond of it, but most company managers are looking for employees with this mindset. People who will be able to take ownership of the company’s projects and the spirit of conquest. To be able to be aware of one’s responsibilities and to act as if the company were one’s own.

In particularly changing and constantly evolving environments, having good stress management skills is a particularly valuable asset in the eyes of a business leader. It is true that many people fear having employees who are unable to adapt and are prone to burn-out. Also, being able to manage stress in any situation will be a great help to evolve in companies that must be able to change from one thing to another in a very short time because of increased competition. Moreover, technological evolutions and disruptions of all kinds are sometimes hard to follow.

If there is one set of behavioural skills that is complicated for technical profiles, it is that of relational skills. But at a time when “project mode” is becoming more and more common, interpersonal skills are crucial. The days when we only cared about technical achievements but not about promoting them are over. Today, each employee must be the first promoter of their own achievements. Whether it is with the company or through exchanges with other stakeholders, relational ease is a key asset for a successful career.

Already commonplace a few years ago, motivation has become a key behavioural quality looked for in every new hire. Particularly sought-after, motivation in new hires is seen as the remedy to lacklustre employees who have may favour a job for its advantages and not for interest in their assigned. For this reason, company managers are increasingly favouring motivated people, even if it means overlooking some of the technical skills expected in the position.

For a long time, creativity has been a quality of employees working in research and development, but it is becoming increasingly important in all professions. The famous thinking outside the box. This is a soft skill that many managers expect, because a good employee today must be able to challenge his or her environment in order to always be at the forefront of what is being done. It could be associated with boldness or critical thinking.

Although very close to interpersonal skills, team work is a complementary behavioural skill. Very few positions in a company require you to work alone. Therefore, team work will be a real asset on a daily basis in order to be aware that we work together and not on our own.

Empathy is a key quality to succeed in business. Whether you are a manager or not, the ability to put yourself in the shoes of others is a real added value. Indeed, managers will use it to put themselves in the shoes of their collaborators and those who are not in a management situation, will use it to broaden their field of vision.

Decision-making is not only an important quality for people in management positions. Knowing how to make decisions without needing to go through the hierarchy or a lengthy validation process allows the company to move forward and not become paralysed when a person has to make a decision. No matter what the decision is, big or small, the ability to decide quickly is important. It is sometimes tempting to refer to one’s superior, who in turn refers to their superior, and so on, before acting, but companies that perform well are also those that are agile and know how to act quickly.

Not always verbalised by recruiters, time management is an important value. The employee who does not suffer from the famous Parkinson’s law will succeed in carrying out their assignments in the shortest possible time. They will therefore demonstrate unparalleled productivity. In this way, being master of one’s time is certainly a value that every employee should make his own.

Particularly sought-after, pro-activity is a soft skill not always easy to find in a future recruit. It is the ability to go beyond what is expected, to anticipate the needs of the hierarchy, the market or the employees. This behavioural skill can call upon several others but it symbolises what modern companies need.

Now it’s your turn to identify these soft skills in your candidates.

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