Succeeding in today’s increasingly competitive global landscape calls for organizations to leverage everything they can. Increasingly, that leverage is coming down to your employees' soft skills – their ability to engage with each other for high-performance, solve problems through creative solutions and communicate with a diverse range of audiences effectively. But while it’s easy (well, easier) to measure and hire for hard-skills competency, it’s very difficult to recognize and hire for soft skills. And once hired, it becomes even more of a task to build those soft skills in our employees. In this one-of-a-kind webinar, we’ll take a hard look at the soft skills that really enable organizations to succeed. From recruiting to learning and development and performance management, we’ll show how a soft-skills focus can dramatically impact your company’s bottom line. In this webinar, you will learn: Soft skills: What are they anyway? Soft skills and recruiting: The secret to successful hires How to teach, measure, and mentor soft skills

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Frequently
Asked
Ques6ons

6. How Soft Skills
Power
Organizational
Performance

7. Michelle Reed
CMO
SKILLSURVEY

8. Hard Skills
Skills that are learned to
perform a specific job function
and are more easily identifiable
and quantifiable.
Mostly about “what you know”
VS
Soft Skills
Skills that are less tangible, and
more associated with one’s
traits or personality, that
determine how we interact.
Mostly about “how you act”.

9. Soft Skills: What are they?

10. 77% of employers believe that
soft skills are just as important
as hard skills.
16% said they were MORE
important than hard skills.
* Source: CareerBuilder
16

11. A national survey of job seekers
and HR professionals…
43% said that “cultural fit” was
the single most important
determining factor when
making a new hire.
* Source: Millennial Branding and Beyond.com

12. * Source Harvard Business Review
Emotional Intelligence
The capacity to recognize your own
and other people’s emotions
Deal with
stress
Overcome
obtacles
Inspire others
Manage conflict Happier at work

13. * Source: CareerBuilder
Flexible
51%
Self
Motivated
66%
Strong
Work Ethic
73%
Dependable
73%
Positive
Attitude
72%Team-Oriented
60%
Organized
57%
Works Well
Under Pressure
57%
Effective
Communicator
56%
Confident
46%
Hiring managers want more
* Source: CareerBuilder

14. of newly hired
employees will fail within
18 months
* Source: “Hire for Attitude” Forbes, January 23, 2012 † Source: “Hiring for attitude: Research &
tools to skyrocket your success rate” Mark Murphy, Leadership IQ, 2012
for lack of soft skills – such
as professionalism or ability
to get along with others
Resign yourself to
this reality
89%46%
Source: Study by Leadership IQ

15. Hiring Well is Hard
This has probably happened to you before…
Person appears perfect…
ü dressed well
ü great answers
ü a sense of confidence
You hire him in your
organization ….

16. And you inevitably end up saying…
… But…
he interviewed
REALLY WELL!
Hiring Well is HARD

17. What Went Wrong?
Traditional Hiring Process:
• Review Resumes
“Over 50% of candidates lie on
resumes…”
Steven D. Levitt, co-author
“Freakonomics”

18. “81% of people lied about
themselves during job
interviews…”
Brent Weiss & Robert Feldman, U Mass
What Went Wrong?
Traditional Hiring Process:
• Review Resumes
• Conduct Interviews

19. Polling Question /

20. What Went Wrong?
“Candidates lie 2.5 times
in a 15-minute
interview…”
Brent Weiss & Robert Feldman
University of Massachusetts
Traditional Hiring Process:
• Review Resumes
• Conduct Interviews

21. “Research consistently
demonstrates that
candidates are able to fake
personality measures …”
International Journal of Selection and
Assessment
What Went Wrong?
“Cognitive ability tests have
a high adverse impact for
minorities…”
SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines
Traditional Hiring Process:
• Review Resumes
• Conduct Interviews
• Self Assessments

22. Soft Skills are the Hard Part
How SHOULD the process work?
§ Identify a set of soft skills desirable for
each position
§ Obtain information on your candidates’
competencies/soft skills
§ Use the information to determine which
candidate(s) best fit the position and your
organization

23. Which soft skills are the right
soft skills?

24. Professionalism
Interpersonal
Skills
Problem Solving
and Adaptability
Personal Value
Commitment
Managing
Others
Leadership
True Predictors of Success
Proficiency in a short list of competency areas, which focus on soft
skills, are the true predictors of success in almost every job.

25. Professionalism
It’s the “price of entry” and consists of a wide variety
of behaviors and skills. Some apply to jobs across the
board:
- Dependability
- Following instructions
- Work ethic

26. Professionalism
Chemical Engineer
- Develop and implement
comprehensive safety
procedures for workers who
handle chemicals and operate
equipment
- Ensure compliance with all
relevant safety and
environmental regulations
(e.g., follow all rules for
disposal of hazardous
materials
Sales Professional
- Accurately prepare customer
orders, proposals,
presentations and out-ward
facing communications to
customers
- Consistently meet or exceed
sales goals
- Comprehend the sales cycle
and follow best practices
throughout the entire process

27. Interpersonal Skills
Having interpersonal skills like the
following will make a candidate far more
likely to succeed:
- Listening
- Relationship-building
- Collaboration

28. Interpersonal Skills
Housekeeper
- Provide a high level of service
to all guests
- Remain calm and helpful
when handling complains
from guests
Registered Nurse
- Provide others with personal
assistance, medical attention,
and emotional support in a
caring and compassionate
manner
- Listen carefully to patients
and co-workers, taking time to
understand and ask
appropriate questions without
interrupting

29. Every job essentially requires the ability to assess
and analyze issues as well as adaptability to changing
conditions:
- Analyzing and summarizing information
- Making decisions
- Adapting to change
Problem Solving
and Adaptability

30. Problem Solving
and Adaptability
Help Desk Support
- Remain flexible and adapt to
variety on the job (e.g.,
effectively handle unexpected
situations and changing
conditions)
- Handle multiple projects
effectively in a fast-paced
environment
Payroll Clerk
- Make high-quality decisions
based upon facts and
business priorities
- Know when to escalate
issues to manager in order to
ensure prompt resolution to
problems

31. Personal Value Commitment
A candidate’s commitment to values and ethics is a key
driver of your own risk exposure. It’s important to know to
what degree and applicant possesses:
- Integrity
- Respect for others
- Adherence to standards
and policies
There are positions that provide
employees with access to sensitive
personal, financial or security data.

32. Personal Value Commitment
Graphic Artist
- Ensure that all aspects of a
project meet or exceed
industry standards
- Act with ethics and integrity,
maintaining confidentiality
and privacy of client and
company information
Controller
- Act with ethics and integrity,
ensuring that the
organization’s financial
activities and records meet or
exceed accounting standards
- Maintain confidentiality and
privacy of company and client
information

33. Hiring Someone to Be
in a Position of Power?
If so, you’re probably going to
need to understand two additional
competencies and apply them
to determine job success.

34. Managing Others
While many jobs clearly demand management skills,
many others will call on them at times.
Skills needed include:
- Selecting and retaining talent
- Leading a team
- Holding others accountable

35. Leadership
The truly high profile positions call for an even larger
set of competencies.
Skills needed include:
- Setting direction
- Managing change
- Motivating others

36. Leadership
Chief Financial Officer
- Work with the executive team to develop short and long-term financial
plans, objectives, policies and actions
- Serve as a trusted advisor to the President and others on challenging
solutions
Chief Information Officer
- Act as a catalyst, communicating the need for change and inspiring
action
- Create the vision to master information technology as a competitive
tool

37. Professionalism
Interpersonal
Skills
Problem Solving
and Adaptability
Personal Value
Commitment
Managing
Others
Leadership
True Predictors of Success
Proficiency in a short list of competency areas, which focus on soft
skills, are the true predictors of success in almost every job.

38. Soft Skills are the Hard Part
How SHOULD the process work?
§ Identify a set of soft skills desirable for
each position
§ Obtain information on your candidates’
competencies/soft skills
§ Use the information to determine which
candidate(s) best fit the position and your
organization

39. Obtain information on
soft skills
Behavioral
Interviewing
Improved reference
checking

40. Behavioral Interviewing
1. Make the candidate feel comfortable
2. Ask some traditional questions
3. Ask for a recent situation that included a difficult challenge that she
had to solve… ended in SUCCESS
ü Ask him/her to tell story briefly
ü Then you review the entire story asking questions about what he/she
thought, felt, and did throughout
ü Example: Describe a problem you faced that was almost overwhelming,
and how you got through it.
4. Ask for another that ended in FAILURE, but he/she learned from it
ü Example: Give me an example of a time when something you tried to
accomplish failed. What did you learn?
5. End on a positive… ask for another success story

41. Behavioral Interviewing
§ Hear how the candidate thinks in situations that involve
stress
§ Get information on how the candidate felt, and if he is
aware of his own feelings
§ Hear how he managed these feelings and the extent to
which he was aware of his impact on others

42. Behavioral
Interviewing
Improved reference
checking
Obtain information on
soft skills

43. Feedback related to past work
performance is the single best
predictor of future job success.
“When the criterion was academic achievement or job
performance, other-ratings yielded predictive validities
substantially greater than and incremental to self-ratings.”
Connelly & Ones, 2010, p. 1092
“Nothing in the science of prediction and selection beats
observing actual performance in an equivalent role.”
Peter Cappelli, Director, Center for Human Resources
The Wharton School

44. Best-in Class Organizations
Get the idea
The Aberdeen Group’s 2015 Report
Best-in-Class
organizations are
2.1 times more
likely to use online
reference checking

45. § Published in the
International Journal of
Selection and Assessment
§ Web-based, multisource
reference checking
ü More candidate info in shorter time
ü Predicts involuntary turnover
ü No statistical differences in results
based on race, gender or age
Online Reference Checking

46. Reference Checking Tips
§ Ask for 5 references—2 managers and 3 co-workers
§ Ask very specific questions
§ “Considering how Sarah compares to others who have worked in this
same position..”
§ “On a scale of 1 to 7, how would you rate Sarah on her ability to
demonstrate high personal standards in dealing with others?”
§ Ask the hard questions
§ “Starting with the most important, please comment on the top 3 ways in
which Sarah can improve her performance. We realize no one is perfect;
in fact, we find that the majority of references provide helpful information
in this area.”

47. Question?
Michelle Reed
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
SKILLSURVEY
@reedmichelle13
mreed@skillsurvey.com
ww.linkedin.com/in/reedmichelle13

48. Thank You
Improve your selection process
through feedback from references
on soft-skills
Try it out for free:
www.skillsurvey.com/tryit

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