Technical skills get people in the door. Soft skills determine whether they thrive. Despite this, soft skills are still undervalued in many selection processes — partly because they are harder to measure than hard skills, and partly because there is often uncertainty about which soft skills actually matter for a given role.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are interpersonal, social, and character-based abilities that influence how people work and interact with others. They include things like:
- Communication and listening
- Collaboration and teamwork
- Emotional intelligence
- Adaptability and resilience
- Problem-solving and creative thinking
- Leadership and influence
- Time management and self-organisation
Unlike hard skills, which can typically be demonstrated through qualifications or tests, soft skills are more nuanced and context-dependent.
Why do soft skills matter so much?
Research consistently shows that soft skills are among the strongest predictors of long-term job performance and career success. Studies by Google, LinkedIn, and Harvard Business Review all point to the same conclusion: the majority of performance problems and failed hires are not due to a lack of technical skills, but to a lack of soft skills — particularly around communication, collaboration, and adaptability.
How to measure soft skills
1. Personality assessments
Validated personality questionnaires, such as those based on the Big Five model, provide insight into stable traits that underpin many soft skills. For example, high agreeableness tends to correlate with collaboration and empathy, while high conscientiousness predicts reliability and self-discipline.
2. Situational judgement tests
These tests present candidates with realistic work scenarios and ask them to choose or rank possible responses. They measure practical judgement and behavioural tendencies in a job-relevant context.
3. Behavioural interview questions
Structured behavioural interviews that ask candidates to describe specific past experiences provide a window into how they have actually applied soft skills in real situations.
4. Game-based assessments
Modern game-based assessments can measure soft skills such as emotional intelligence, adaptability, and decision-making in an engaging and less transparent way, reducing the risk of socially desirable responding.
5. 360-degree feedback
For existing employees, 360-degree feedback tools gather input from multiple sources — managers, peers, and direct reports — to provide a rounded view of an individual's soft skills in practice.
Conclusion
Measuring soft skills is no longer a nice-to-have — it is a necessity for organisations that want to hire and develop people who will genuinely succeed. With the right tools and approach, soft skills can be assessed reliably and used to make better, fairer decisions. Want to know how Selection Lab measures soft skills in its selection flows? Get in touch with us.
