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Recruiting, Selection & Retention: Interview for Intangibles & Soft Skills (PDF)
PDF document 4 Pages
HIRING PDF DESCRIPTION
Use this instrument to assess candidates being interviewed regarding the intangibles important to your organization, including diversity. Soft skills can easily be assessed during an interview by asking the right questions and having in mind the necessary competencies and skills associated with the position for which you are interviewing. Using the ratings for responses to the questions helps an interviewing team decide which candidate is the best among several candidates, particularly when they seem very comparable in knowledge, experience and demeanor.
With this instrument, select the appropriate questions and modify them as you see fit for the position for which interviews are being conducted. We propose a 1 to 3 rating scale, but you may also use a 1 to 5 rating scale. Depending on how many categories of questions used, simply add up all of the scores, and divide them by the number of applicable categories. If there is a finer comparison among candidates needed, you can average the numbers by category especially if some categories are more important than others based on the industry, the organization and the position, and even the level of direct client/customer contact anticipated.
Interviewing categories, in addition to Diversity, include but are not limited to the following:
• Client/Customer Care
• Communication
• Team Orientation
• Organizational Skills
• Problem-Solving Skills
• Project-Related Skills
This PDF equips you with a structured approach to identify and evaluate the soft skills that are crucial for your organization's success. The interview framework emphasizes the significance of intangibles, allowing you to delve deeper into candidates' interpersonal abilities and cultural fit. By leveraging targeted questions and a clear rating system, you can streamline the selection process, ensuring that you not only assess technical qualifications, but also the essential traits that drive team dynamics and client relationships. The insights gained from this tool will empower your hiring team to make informed decisions that align with your strategic goals.
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TOPIC FAQ
How can I reliably assess soft skills during an interview?
Ask targeted behavioral and situational questions aligned to the competencies required for the role, and rate candidate responses using a consistent numeric scale. The reviewed approach recommends selecting questions, modifying them for the role, and applying a 1–3 rating scale (or optional 1–5) to each category for comparison across candidates, 1 to 3 or 1 to 5 rating scale.Which intangible categories should I include on an interview scorecard?
Include categories that reflect the role’s interpersonal and performance demands; the referenced framework lists Diversity, Client/Customer Care, Communication, Team Orientation, Organizational Skills, Problem-Solving Skills, and Project-Related Skills as applicable interview categories, Project-Related Skills.What scoring method helps compare candidates on soft skills?
Score each applicable category, sum the scores, and divide by the number of applicable categories to produce a comparable average. For finer distinctions, average scores by category or apply weights to more critical categories, ending the process by dividing totals by the number of applicable categories.How should an interview panel structure interviews to capture intangibles effectively?
Panels should select or adapt role-relevant questions in advance, agree on the rating scale, record ratings immediately after responses, and use summed or averaged category scores to compare finalists. This ensures consistent capture of interpersonal evidence using a structured question set with a 1–3 rating scale.What should I look for when purchasing a soft-skill interview template?
Look for editable question banks, explicit categories of intangibles, guidance on rating scales (1–3 and 1–5 options), and instructions for summing or averaging scores. Recruiting, Selection & Retention: Interview for Intangibles & Soft Skills provides selectable/modifiable questions and rating options to support those needs, 1 to 5 rating scale options.Are templates for interviewing intangibles worth the investment for small teams?
Templates standardize questions and scoring, reducing subjective variation across interviewers and simplifying comparisons among similarly qualified candidates. For small teams, this saves time and supports defensible hiring decisions by applying consistent ratings across categories such as Client/Customer Care and Team Orientation.I have 2 finalists with near-identical resumes—what process helps pick the better cultural fit?
Use targeted intangible questions, rate responses consistently, then average scores by category and, if needed, apply greater weight to role-critical categories. The Flevy document Recruiting, Selection & Retention: Interview for Intangibles & Soft Skills supplies ready questions and a scoring approach useful for this process, averaging numbers by category.Can interview scoring templates help assess diversity and inclusion fit?
Yes; include Diversity as a distinct interview category, tailor behavioral questions to probe inclusive behaviors and perspectives, and rate responses consistently to compare candidates. The referenced instrument explicitly lists Diversity as one of its interview categories, Diversity is one listed interview category.Source: Best Practices in Hiring, Interviewing PDF: Recruiting, Selection & Retention: Interview for Intangibles & Soft Skills PDF (PDF) Document, Karen Reitor, Communique Productions Inc
