Soft Skills

You may well have found that employees with great technical knowledge necessary for a job may still be unsuccessful in the role if they lack more nuanced skills, better known as soft skills. 

In this article, we’ll examine what soft skills are, why they are important, and how to hone them in your own workforce. We’ll also briefly discuss hard skills for work, and their value when compared to soft skills. 

If you require immediate support with staff training and/or recruiting, you can get same-day advice from a Croner HR expert today on 0808 501 6651. 

What are transferable skills?

Soft skills can be categorised as transferable skills, which are abilities that are broadly applicable across a range roles, specialisms, and competencies. In fact, this transferability and adaptability forms part of why they are counted among the skills employers are looking for. 

Transferable skills examples: 

• Sales & marketing. 

• Computer literacy. 

• Dependability. 

• Data analysis. 

• Negotiation. 

What are soft skills?

As a transferable skill, soft skills are the ability to communicate effectively, problem-solve, exercise emotional intelligence, and apply inter-personal problem solving. These are integral skills needed for a job in almost every role and industry.

That is why employers and hiring managers who hire staff with excellent overall soft skills, sometimes referred to as noncognitive, essential, or interpersonal skills, find that these employees provide long-term value to their businesses. Unlike some hard skills, which may or may not become obsolete, such as manual bricklaying, soft skills maintain value over time.

Soft skills vs hard skills 

Let’s discuss the difference between hard and soft skills. 

What is a hard skill? 

Sometimes referred to as technical or practical skills, a hard skill is something that is acquired through specific formal education and/or training. Hard skills are needed to perform a job correctly. You wouldn’t expect an HR professional to do their job without relevant qualifications. You wouldn’t expect an accountant to manage your business’s finances without formal training, and so on. 

Which skill type is more important? 

Hard and soft skills are both valuable in the workplace. 

• Hard skills are essential for skilled or professional jobs.  

• Soft skills can be learned or developed on the job.  

However, this doesn’t mean soft skills aren’t equally as important.  

Why are soft skills important? 

Until now, we have not examined why employees with soft skills are so important to your business. Simply put, employees with a mix of both soft and hard skills provide more value to your company over time.  

This is why hiring managers might opt for a candidate with good soft skills and less experience than someone with great experience who may lack soft skills. 

Candidates with strong soft skills demonstrate: 

• Potential: Employees with strong communication and problem-solving skills will rise will meet and solve challenges more consistently and effectively. 

• Culture fit: Employees with good people skills are more likely to fit into your company culture. 

• Extra criteria: If you have two candidates with similar technical skills, you can assess and qualify suitability by evaluating their soft skills. 

Soft skill examples and types  

Below, we outline four soft skills categories, with specific examples of each to help you gain a better understanding of how soft skills work, and what qualifies as a soft skill. 

1. Interpersonal and emotional intelligence 

• Effective communication: Articulating thoughts, plans, and procedures clearly. Actively listening to co-workers and managers.  

• Conflict resolution: Mediating and resolving interpersonal conflicts and/or misunderstandings. Actively co-creating solutions that benefit all concerned parties.  

• Positive outlook: Consistently optimistic during challenging situations, remaining solutions oriented. 

• Leadership soft skills: Inspiring, motivating, and leading team members/co-workers towards shared goals and objectives.  

• Teamwork: Working well and collaborating effectively within a wider team. Sharing responsibility and taking accountability.   

2. Cognitive and problem-solving 

• Sound decision-making: Selecting the most effective and efficient course of action out of several possible routes, using sound judgement and analysis to make decisions. 

• Innovation & creativity: Thinking outside the box, approaching longstanding challenges with new solutions and/or innovation.  

• Critical thinking: Objectively assessing and analysing information, forming sound judgements based on incoming information. 

3. Adaptability & resilience 

• Adaptability: Pre-empting situations given current information, as well as adjusting to new factors, challenges, and environments. 

• Open to critique: Can accept and utilise feedback to improve, using critique to become better.  

4. Personal effectiveness 

• Time management: Prioritising tasks and using time efficiently.  

• Work ethic: Can work diligently, maintain the quality of work produced or undertaken over the long term.  

As you can see, these are highly employable skills. Now that you have a better idea of what soft skills are and how they work in practice, we encourage you to add a few more to this list that may be applicable to your specific arena or industry.

When recruiting it’s a good idea to write down your own criteria. Note down the ability, or abilities, you look for most in job seekers. This will help you recognise when someone is a good fit for the new job. 

Every company is different, so you’ll have your own priorities when it comes to skill hunting. For some, a positive attitude will be a crucial skill, but teamwork won’t be necessary. Here are the soft skills employers look for most frequently. 

Key soft skills 

1. Communication 

If communication breaks down, so does morale and productivity. Knowing when, how, and where to deploy staff with good communication skills will increase the output of your team.  That’s why candidates with effective communication skills are always in high demand, as they’re effective in client-facing roles, or jobs where employees must work as a team.   

Pay attention to their tone and style of speaking. See if they can act efficiently on instruction and explain complex issues. It might be that they can communicate effectively, but their tone or use of jargon isn’t suitable for your company. These are the interpersonal skills that will give your employees edge. 

2. Being open to feedback 

An employee who becomes defensive when given feedback is less likely to improve their performance. The same can be said of those who take criticism too personally and lose motivation. That’s why individuals who can take in feedback and adapt their approach is a fantastic skill any employee can have. It’ll also enhance their problem-solving skills, as well as collaboration when working on group projects. 

3. Adaptability 

Adaptability is vital for career progression. If an employee is to take on new responsibilities, they’ll need to be able to adjust to new methods of working, and new ways of thinking. Flexible employees can adapt quickly when plans change and can think on their feet. If you employ an adaptable candidate, you know that you can throw any challenge their way and they’ll face it head on.  

4. Work ethic 

There is perhaps no soft skill greater than work ethic. An employee with all the right technical skills may not have the motivation and diligence to use them effectively. It’s up to you as an employer to cultivate and reward enthusiasm towards work. Failure to do so will lead to a loss of morale, motivation, and could result in them leaving the company. 

5. Organisation / Time management 

The last essential soft skill is time management and organisation. If an employee consistently turns up late, misses deadlines, or misplaces equipment, they’re going to go to be consistently unproductive.  

How do I assess soft skills? 

Whether you’re interviewing a new candidate, or assessing an existing employee for leadership skills, it’s worthwhile checking in on their development. But, what’s the best way to assess them? 

There are three key approaches you can use to gauge an employee's current ability level. 

1. Ask behavioural questions 

This is a great way of testing areas such as organisation and problem-solving ability. Ask interview questions such as: 

• “How do you prioritise your workload when there are multiple tasks with the same deadline?” 
• “How have you resolved a disagreement with co-workers in the past?” 
• “How would you delegate tasks when working on a big project?”

Depending on their answers, you can discuss whether further support is needed.  

2. Present problems or assignments 

This method is highly effective at assessing soft skills.  

• Present the individual with a problem, practical or otherwise, and see how they solve it. 

• Roleplaying activities are great for assessing communication skills and conflict resolution. 

• Team tasks are good for gauging teamwork and resourcefulness. 

• Technical tasks are good for problem solving abilities.  

Depending on the job role and level of seniority, you can tailor these scenarios to assess the skill you want to focus on. 

3. Conversation 

If you’re at the interview stage, the ability to have a chat is one of the most important soft skills to have in the initial meeting. Though presented as just a catch up, a positive interaction can help you assess their potential for leadership. 

Pay attention to what they claim in their CV and/or cover letter and see if it matches up when you speak with them. A candidate could claim to deal with criticism well, but flounder when you bring up an error in a written task. 

Finally, check in to see if they are actively listening. You can do this by asking them to recall what you said earlier in the conversation. If they are actively listening, they shouldn’t have a problem doing this. 

How to develop soft skills in your staff 

The first step is to identify which soft skills need improving, which we’ve already outlined how to do. Whilst evaluating, you may find that one employee may be a fantastic worker, but a terrible communicator. Another may have all the technical knowledge they need to succeed, but awful time management.  

Soft skills training 

For skills to develop, they need to be trained.  

• Start by having a follow up meeting with the individual(s) to discuss their areas of weakness. Ask their opinion on how they feel they can improve. Remember, unless their performance has been significantly affected by a soft skill, this shouldn’t be an accusatory meeting.  

• Begin to develop a progression strategy, including any soft skills training programs that may help them develop. Often, soft skills involve stepping out of your comfort zone, so be sure to offer support as they go through their training. 

• Be careful when identifying soft skills to improve. Examples of soft skills include things such as emotional intelligence and leadership skills. Because soft skills are often so fundamental to a person’s character, it can be easy to confuse them for personality traits. Whilst an employee’s personality can be developed, you shouldn’t force a personality change on them.  

If you’re unsure where to start with employee development, speak to one of our HR experts today for guidance on 0808 501 6651. 

Key takeaways – soft skills 

• Identify which soft skills are important to your workplace.  

• Create a checklist and use it to assess each candidate that you meet moving forward.  

• Always factor in soft skills when considering and planning personal development.  

Expert support with recruitment, training, and staff development 

Good soft skills are critical to morale, productivity, communication, and success, which is why they are qualities employers look for. However, it can often be hard to gauge an employee’s skill level, and even harder to manage if they’re struggling. 

Croner has spent the last 80 years working with employers across the UK, helping them develop better employee relations and getting the best out of their workforce. 

For expert HR advice that you can trust, speak to one of our consultants today on 0808 501 6651.