Assess, Train and Retain New Hires

How to assess soft skills before you make a hire

Soft skills are really hard to assess, which is an issue because right now, they’ve never been more in-demand. Today’s must-have candidates are adept at communication, time management, and critical thinking, among other traits. In fact, according to education non-profit America Succeeds, seven of the 10?most requested skills in job postings?are soft skills.??

There’s a good reason why that’s the case. Nearly 90% of recruiters?surveyed?in a LinkedIn report on global talent trends said that “bad hires” usually lacked adequate soft skills. When candidates can’t handle deadlines, struggle with collaboration, or fail to accept constructive feedback, they usually don’t last long.

Soft skills are tough to measure.

Unlike technical skills, which can more easily be learned, soft skills are uniquely challenging to develop. That’s mostly because they’re directly tied to intangibles like character, personality, backgrounds, and experiences. Those qualities are often hard to assess.

There are AI tools available to help businesses evaluate a job candidate’s soft skills; but the reality is that according to that same LinkedIn report, most companies still lean on behavioral or situational?interview questions?as a way of making those assessments. Yes, these kinds of questions do a fair job of identifying soft skills; however, they are less revealing than spending real time at work with a candidate.?

An effective way to narrow the gap between what most behavioral questions reveal and that experience of actually getting to know a candidate is to have your company’s values inform your evaluation criteria. If transparency is a value your company prioritizes, then ask the candidate for an example of when they exhibited transparency in a professional environment. This way, you’re not just assessing soft skills, you’re assessing soft skills that are most important to your team.

How to assess soft skills.

Asking values-focused questions isn’t the only method for finding out if a job candidate has the soft skills necessary to succeed at your organization. Here are some other tips for making those important determinations:

Put candidates to the test.

• Pre-employment testing is an effective way to identify the personality traits, work styles and approaches of the person you’re considering. Furthermore, measuring candidates’ scores against those of your highest performing employees is a way to quickly identify individuals who should move to the next level of your hiring process.
• If you’re wanting to know which tests are the best fit for your company as well as how to they should be deployed, the Society of Human Resource Management has?recommendations.

Clue in on social cues.

• As you ask candidates your value-centered behavioral questions, observe how they react as they respond. Beyond the standard set of nerves that materialize during an interview, see if the candidate shows any dramatic changes in behavior.
• Is their eye contact consistent? Are they prone to interruptions? Those are indicators of communication and listening skill sets.

Rely on references.

• There’s a good chance you asked your job candidate for references. If so, ask those contacts questions about that person’s soft skills.
• Are responses consistent across each of the references the candidate provided??Are they in line with what the candidate expressed in their interview? Confirming a candidate’s soft skills is easiest if you leverage all the available insight.

Simulate real-life scenarios.

• Place the candidate in conditions where they can show off the soft skills you’re hoping to see. Have them participate in an exercise where they have to rethink a defined process in a short amount of time, for example. Those stressors can reveal abilities to problem solve, think critically, manage time and be resourceful.?

How to train and retain your new hires

You’ve interviewed, narrowed the field and hired the right person for the job. And chances are, if you’re welcoming someone new to the field, there will be some additional training involved from day one. This gives you the opportunity to take a closer look at how you welcome team members, set expectations, and encourage them to succeed (and grow) within their new role.

To be clear, your?onboarding process?is much more than just helping employees get situated. New employees are optimistic and eager to connect with a new position and?company culture?upon starting. Those who aren't properly onboarded or report that they were improperly trained are more likely to leave, and those quick departures can get expensive.

As cited in this?University of Minnesota report, author Leigh Branham writes in her book, “Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business” that “the cost of losing an employee can range from 25 percent to 200 percent of that employee’s salary.” In addition to this extraordinary cost, an employee exit can result in significant reputational damage to the organization, both internally and among job seekers.

So, as a small business owner, how do you avoid this costly pitfall? If you’re in a hurry to hire, there likely isn’t time to tailor onboarding experiences for each incoming employee. It’s easier to establish guidelines that approach the training in a consistent, measurable way.

Training needs to be specialized

• While customization, time and effort are often mutually exclusive, this is one area where you'll need to bend. It's not to say that employees – and the businesses that employ them – can't benefit from cross-training, of course.
• However, trying to teach too much too soon is an easy way to overwhelm a new hire right back out the door. Training priorities should mirror the new hire’s primary job responsibilities.

Take a loose approach to training

• Again, discipline is great for consistency, but if your new hire doesn't feel comfortable straying off-book or asking questions, you're going to have problems. Strict training programs (think of an employee staring listlessly at a screen as a video series plays) are often time-intensive, expensive and quickly outdated.
• Think about your company as it operates today, and make sure your training emphasizes present and forward-looking values and skills.

Be ready to go as an employer

• This is a logical step toward making a good first impression with your new employee. If they arrive on their first day to a scramble for a desk, confusion as to what log-ins they'll need, or muddled ideas about whom they'll report to, they're likely to mirror that behavior when it comes to "owning" their work later.
• Have resources on hand so that new hires only have to focus on learning their new position.

Ask something specific and set clear expectations

• You know the work you're asking your new employee to do – they don’t. It's up to you to lay out expectations from the start, and a 90 or 180-day goal is a great way to go about it. Where do you see this employee in three or four months? What should they be doing independently?
• Set a meeting on the goal date to discuss their progress, and hopefully, their achievement. Knowing that the meeting is in their fixed future will motivate the employee to tackle obstacles with purpose, and even spur them to reach out for help if they're struggling with something challenging.

Raise excitement and invite exploration

• One of the most common complaints employees share, regardless of company size or industry, is that management either doesn't listen to them or doesn't care about them. Nip this issue in the bud by helping your new employees get excited about the benefits that await them, whether it be handing them a list of paid holidays, throwing a small "welcome to work" when they arrive or giving them easy access to information about product discounts and similar perks.
• Ask them what they're most excited about exploring in your company and in their position and help them facilitate that. They'll feel welcomed and rewarded for their service from the first day on.
• As the job market ebbs and flows, the same goes for your pool of job candidates. If your organization aims to not only land but?keep?the best employees available, then your efforts should start on their hire date.
• Your business isn't their only choice for employment, so convincing new employees they made the right decision should be as important as getting their signature on their offer letter.

BBB Great West + Pacific?contributed this article.