The demand for social and emotional skills at the workplace is poised to rise by 24% by 2030 and is driving employers to prioritise soft skills. Most executives consider soft skills just as essential as hard skills. Considering that the average cost of hiring a new mid-level position is $17,841, acquiring and retaining top talent can be expensive. But with the right recruitment strategy focused on soft skills such as adaptability, time management and critical thinking, you can cut these costs in half.
So why are soft skills becoming a hard requirement in today’s work environment? LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends report found that 89% of recruiters surveyed said that when a hire doesn’t work out, it usually comes down to a lack of soft skills.
The statistics confirm our experience with clients who turn to us for their recruitment needs. They know that hiring candidates with the necessary soft skills is the key to creating highly effective teams in the modern workplace. Soft skills are essential when recruiting across senior managerial roles, legal, property, medical, marketing, finance and administration roles.
In our experience, building excellent people skills allows companies to find meaningful ways to remain competitive and skyrocket productivity. In addition, soft skills development underpins communication, teamwork, and leadership in any organisation.
Here are the top 10 soft skills to prioritise when screening resumes and conducting interviews to find your perfect candidate in 2022.
Adaptability
Australian companies underwent radical workplace changes to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. Successful companies readily adapted to the new working environment and technology in a heartbeat.
Adaptable employees are highly driven and often overcome significant challenges to achieve their goals. Therefore, prioritise candidates with a high drive and desire to succeed.
Emotional Intelligence
The best hires have high emotional intelligence. You can apply a battery of tests to decipher these skills during recruitment. In many businesses, employees are often subjected to short deadlines, long hours, and additional responsibilities in a fast-paced business environment. Can your new hire handle these expectations?
Assessing emotional intelligence determines how a candidate will fare in your work environment. You can decide which candidates can play well with others, a critical ingredient when creating world-class teams.
Communication Skills
Excellent communication skills are critical, especially in a virtual working environment. You want candidates who can send professional texts and emails, sound proficient on the phone, and attend Zoom meetings confidently. You deduce a candidate’s communication skills from how they speak, engage, listen, or negotiate during the interview process.
Ability to Work in a Virtual Environment
More than 40% of the Australian workforce work from home and love the perks that come with it. Aim to recruit people with significant remote working experience. But don’t overlook candidates who are a great fit but have no prior experience, as they might also thrive in the role.
Look for prospects with a sound grounding in technology, invested in team culture, are involved in their work, and are highly responsive.
Willingness to Learn
The modern workplace is fast-paced and powered by dynamic technology and requires workers who embrace continuous learning. Such workers are keen to advance their knowledge and skillsets and embrace new tools at a moment’s notice.
Dynamic candidates take full advantage of free Australian learning platforms to polish and grow their skills and knowledge. Prioritise candidates who are willing to keep learning and aren’t fazed by new technology. They will power your firm’s ability to innovate.
Leadership Abilities
It’s common for companies to recruit for executive and managerial positions from within their ranks. That underpins the drive to recruit candidates with leadership potential. You want candidates capable of leading a project or managing their team.
Candidates with extraordinary leadership abilities are dependable, capable of receiving and giving feedback, and are active listeners. They’re capable of motivating employees and ensuring timely project completion.
Critical Thinking
Efficient companies prefer candidates with the ability to think on their feet. Such workers have the canny ability to analyse a situation and account for the best outcome to make informed decisions. In many cases, employees must make critical decisions when discharging their duties.
Look for candidates who detail how their decisions benefited their employer on their resumes. Or have them describe how their ability to make a great decision has impacted their career trajectory.
Artificial Intelligence
With Artificial Intelligence becoming an essential business solution, recruiters prioritise candidates with AI knowledge and experience. Hiring candidates with high-level AI experience lowers the learning curve to let them hit the ground running.
Harnessing the power of AI technology gives Australian companies an advantage in the market. A tech-savvy workforce powers the ability to adapt and innovate.
Creativity
Creativity is simply the ability to approach a problem from multiple angles. Creative employees think outside the box to develop different ways to tackle a problem. Skilful and experienced employees are likely to be creative because they have an extensive resource base to tap into when solving problems.
Resilience
We’ve seen recruiters gravitate towards candidates who aren’t above pulling themselves up by their bootstraps whenever the situation calls for it. Filling your ranks with resilient employees ensures your ability to weather the rough times.
You can assess a candidate for resilience by asking them to detail some of the challenges they’ve encountered and how they surmounted them. Give newly minted workers a fictitious scenario and observe how they’d handle it.
Recruit Top Talent with Majer Recruitment
Soft skills are critical to creating an enabling company culture that will have you outpacing the competition and attracting top talents. They’re essential to successfully leading teams, building professional relationships, and bringing out the best in your workforce.
At Majer Recruitment, we’ve refined the ability to match your company with the right talents quickly and effectively. We are a professional, dynamic, and well-respected recruitment firm. Take advantage of our 20 years of industry experience to work for you whenever you need to fill permanent, temporary, and contractor roles.
Let our award-winning consultants champion your recruitment efforts. Contact us today.
