The importance of soft skills in recruitment

This story has been doing the rounds in various forums and news sites. We took some time to decode what is happening during our monthly team meeting and feel there’s a deeper issue at play in this transaction.
The first is that a more nuanced and empathetic approach would have worked favourably in this case. While aggression and a ‘go getter’ attitude was all very well, it needs to be seen through the lens of the person sitting across the table. Doing this needs a degree of empathy and EQ. If that’s missing, then there’s a lot that can go wrong.
There are three takeaways that we see as outcomes of this episode.
One : Feedback about a recruitment process gone bad, makes its way into the open very quickly. So the process needs to be studied carefully, gaps identified and corrective measures taken by keeping all stakeholders in the loop. This even includes people who haven’t joined. This group can be the most powerful source of feedback, but are often ignored by recruiters ‘because they never joined’. Well, neither did this person but that has not stopped her from dragging the company’s bad practices into full public glare.
Two : Soft skills for all levels of the organisation are a must if they are to avoid such bad press in the future. It is often easily overlooked or added as a ‘nice to have’ in development discussions. This must change. Soft skills need to be ingrained in every person in every organisation. If companies want to start talking about ‘people being their most important asset’, they must start making sure their assets are working in harmony with each other. Hard skills can be automated. Soft skills – not as much.
Three : The #MeToo movement may be about sexual harassment in workplaces. However, this movement has had a subtle, yet powerful effect : more and more people are now ‘coming out’ and identifying and supporting people who have shared a common misfortune. Names are taken – of people and companies; brand value is lost and companies spend inordinate amounts of time and treasure putting out fires.
AceNgage believes that the internet has made the world a smaller place. News travels fast and bad news, more so. Companies need to be alive to this new reality and take measures to fix things before they break.
That’s why our services are designed to find out what is (going) wrong and then working with the stakeholders using data and facts to fix the problem. Whether it is identifying and flagging ‘hot spots’ in the process or ensuring that interview panels have the soft skills needed to make a positive impression on candidates irrespective of the outcome we have it all covered.
If you think your company can benefit from a better recruitment process, give us a call.