While it’s easy to assess an employee’s product knowledge or quarterly sales performance, measuring soft skills is a little more difficult. But with research recognizing the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace, it’s worth it for organizations to take the time and effort to measure soft skills so they monitor progress in mastering them.
The truth is that, with the right planning, soft skills can be measured. And with the right training tools, soft skills can improve over time.
Why Measuring Soft Skills Is So Important to a Company’s Success
All the way back in 1918, The Carnegie Foundation published “A Study of Engineering Education,” which contained the statistic that 85% of job success comes from having interpersonal skills, while only 15% comes from technical knowledge. A century later, despite so many changes in technology, LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report found that 89% of recruiters say that when a hire doesn’t work out, it’s due to a lack of soft skills. Clearly, being able to communicate and collaborate with others is crucial for employees to flourish in their field.
But while soft skills are valued in the work environment, employers sometimes assume these skills can’t be developed (and certainly can’t be improved upon). By taking a “you get what you get” approach to talent management, organizations are passing up the opportunity to grow their employees into empathetic, resilient team leaders.
And soft skills aren’t only important within the walls of an organization. A salesperson or product manager can know everything there is to know about a product and use the most advanced AI tools to reach prospects, but if they don’t have interpersonal skills to form relationships with customers and appeal to clients’ emotions, they’ll still struggle to close deals. All employees need to be able to listen empathetically to others, exercise reasoning skills and basically show their human side.
By quantifying soft skills in team members regularly, companies can gauge weaknesses in their organization and offer soft skills training as needed.
5 Tips for Taking Soft Skills Measurements of Employees
While hard skills can be measured with tests and data, measuring soft skills requires observing an employee’s behavior and collecting feedback from others. Here are some tips for doing just that:
1. Include Soft Skills in Performance Evaluations
Along with gauging physical competencies during monthly or quarterly management reviews, provide a 1-10 rating scale for how the employee is doing when it comes to communication. Are they a team player? Are they willing to listen to the ideas of others? Are they resilient in times of crisis? These soft skills measurements are useful in deciding where improvements should be made.
2. Listen to 360-Degree Feedback
Gathering feedback from colleagues, peers and managers is a great way to gain a holistic view of an employee’s strengths and weaknesses. This type of assessment is also useful for helping employees understand how they positively or negatively affect those around them — which is a key component in developing self-awareness.
3. Provide Self-Assessment Tools
Encourage employees to take a survey that quantifies their own soft skills and compare their answers to how others rated them. Perhaps they don’t see themselves as a good team leader while others do — which can be a big confidence booster. Or, they view themselves as a better communicator than they actually are — which can be humbling and let them know they can improve.
4. Conduct Role-Playing Simulations
Have employees act out scenarios to assess their ability to resolve conflicts, solve problems and empathize with coworkers. After each simulation, managers can provide feedback on how each employee can improve. This is not only a great way to gauge how ready they are to become leaders, but it’s also a measurement of how much more soft skills training they need.
5. Evaluate Their Understanding After a Soft Skills Training Course
One of the best ways for measuring soft skills is to show employees what’s appropriate in the workplace, and then assess how much of it they understand. Engaging soft skills training courses can include interactive exercises to improve decision-making, boost inclusion, improve communication skills and more. After each microlearning lesson, managers can check how well employees comprehend the information and discuss how to implement it into life at work.
Measuring Soft Skills in Job Candidates
While soft skills can be measured and taught to current employees, it’s also good practice to evaluate potential employees’ temperaments and critical thinking skills before they’re hired. There are several methods of doing this:
Administer Pre-Employment Personality Tests
These tests can be used to either narrow a wide field of applicants or to differentiate between finalists for a position. The Enneagram Institute, for instance, offers a test that can separate candidates into nine types, including the Helper, the Achiever, the Challenger, and the Peacemaker. Personality types can help assess assertiveness, sensitivity, time management skills, leadership ability and more.
Discuss Their Past Experiences
For a glimpse into how they would use soft skills in action, ask candidates how they reacted in specific scenarios at a former employer. For instance, “Tell me about a time you were criticized and explain how you reacted.” Their response should help offer insight into their emotional reactivity — and how they will fit in with your team members.
Pose Hypothetical Situations
Like asking for a specific real-life scenario, ask how a candidate would deal with a potential work problem. Something like “What would you do if your direct report didn’t turn his project in to you on time, and his tardiness is affecting your presentation to a major client?” The candidate’s response should reveal communication skills, leadership ability and how resilient they can be.
