The value of soft skills assessments in hiring and leadership training

[Riman Talukder]

The digital transformation has caused a significant shift in the recruitment landscape and increased the importance of soft skills in developing and managing a diverse, inclusive, and flexible workforce. A Harvard University research shows that 85% of career success is attributed to soft skills, while only 15% of success comes from technical skills.

However, the traditional interviewing technique to assess soft skills merely gauges candidates through interviews and subjective methods. This technique must be revised to hire the next generation of leaders.

Mercer | Mettl helps organizations transform hiring and leadership training with Communication Skills Assessment. It aids internal and external hiring strategies by allowing HR managers to understand candidates’ soft skills, language proficiency, and communication skills.



Benefits of using soft skills assessments:


Expedited candidate selection

Organizations can reduce recruitment costs for key roles with an expedited hiring process. Soft skills assessment enables recruiters to simultaneously assess a large pool and identify talented candidates matching technical and soft skills requirements.


Standardized and transparent tests
Transparent and standardized soft skills tests improve the credibility of the hiring process. This is important to increase candidate engagement during internal hiring.

Potential candidates understand that everyone is taking the same standardized test, which helps reduce unknown bias and instills candidates’ trust in the employer.


Eliminates candidate bias

Leaders prefer automated soft skills assessment because it provides objectivity and avoids people bias.

Mercer | Mettl offers artificial intelligence proctoring to avoid proctor bias. The automated proctoring platform records audio and video, screen captures regularly, and flags for suspicious candidate activity. This ensures a reliable evaluation.


Seamless assessment experience

Soft skills assessments can be customized for varied hiring and training needs depending on the job roles and company requirements. Candidates can take assessments comfortably from their current location and focus on their hiring preparation rather than on travel and commute.


Customizable testing for hiring and training

Depending on the different job roles and company requirements, soft skills assessments can be customized for varied hiring and training needs. While some job roles, such as senior sales professional, may require proficiency in soft skills, a Java developer may only require the necessary soft skills to communicate internally. Similarly, an employee being considered for a leadership promotion may be assessed for communication, soft, and interpersonal skills. However, an employee moving to a lateral (similar) role may only require adequate training to improve soft skills.

As industry and workplace complexities increase, soft skills assessments have become a benchmark in the hiring and training landscape. These assessments allow recruiters to assess candidates’ cultural fitment for a job role. Mercer | Mettl provides a suite of assessments to evaluate candidates’ soft skills, communication accuracy, spoken English, and other interpersonal skills. These assessments enhance hiring and internal mobility strategies by reducing costs, improving accuracy, and ensuring fair judgment.


Source:
https://rb.gy/fvm19