How can you address gaps in a candidate's soft skills?

Most candidates have all of the soft skills they just do not communicate this effectively. We naturally get nervous in interviews and it means are personality becomes limited. You can help a candidate with this by thorough preparation ahead of the interview to allow the confidence to be themselves during it. Always encourage candidates to ask open questions and spark conversation to allow their personality and soft skills to come through.

Even the most confident people can find interviews nerve-wracking. When I interview a candidate who is strong, but struggles with soft skills, I will coach them on how to approach conversations and interviews. I am careful to not over-coach since as a recruiter you don't want to misrepresent the candidate's skills and/or character to the client. If I find that a candidate seems to lack soft skills in a way that goes beyond being nervous for an interview, I will refer them to an executive coach.

1. Ask questions to get more information from candidates. Often, candidates are nervous, or don't know how to best articulate their skills so you might see gaps. 2. Give candidates a heads up on what to expect in an interview, or during the application process. This could include telling people to prepare examples of their work, or that people can expect scenario based questions. 3. Formulate your reference questions to fill in gaps that might be missing around a persons work and their successes. 4. If you are still unsure, call a candidate in (if you see there is potential), in for a second interview, and focus more on their soft skills. Give them a heads up about this so they can prepare.

Feedback is absolutely fundamental. Soft skills are often a subjective area - and whilst there are traits that are beneficial to performing well at interview stage, the synergy you build during a conversation can depend on how its conducted (video / F2F), where it happens (office / coffee shop etc.) and who is present (senior level employees vs. potential team members). Candidates I often find (I fell into the same trap applying for my first role) try and be TOO professional, removing a lot of the personal from an interview and not demonstrating WHO you are and what it would be like to work with you. It is a balance between both professionalism and personality that we're looking to strike, and I think mentorship works wonders.

Il y a ici confusion entre compétences et performances. Je souhaite rappeler que la performance est le résultat d'un travail d'équipe et que la proposition, ici, de récompense individuelle est un très bon moyen pour pousser les salariés à jouer les uns contre les autres et non à valoriser une synergie pour l'atteinte d'objectifs communs.

Ce type de question nécessite, en amont, de donner une définition de la compétence. Si celle-ci est une capacité à répondre de manière intelligente à une situation en tenant compte des enjeux et attentes du commanditaire ( chef de service ou employeur) ainsi que du point de vue et des enjeux des collègues nécessaires à l'émergence de l'intelligence collective qui donnera un travail de qualité ancré dans de multiples réels, détricoter ainsi la notion de compétences pour la morceler, me semble hors propos si l'on questionne le Travail et les capacités de réponse aux difficultés qu'il soulève.

It varies depending on the specific position we're recruiting for. Take, for example, a Sales Executive role; effective communication is crucial. During candidate interviews, within the first 5-10 minutes of discussion, it becomes apparent whether the individual is able to articulate their past experiences persuasively and align with the requirements of the role. In cases where there's room for improvement, I typically offer personalized advice. I might share my observations or experiences with other candidates and provide guidance on enhancing their expressiveness. The aim is to help them emphasize their past experiences more effectively and make a compelling case to the hiring manager. 😉