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Soft skills in hiring
What are soft skills in hiring?
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are the personal and interpersonal abilities that shape how someone works: how they communicate, collaborate, solve problems and adapt to change. They complement hard skills, the technical knowledge a role requires, and form part of the behavioral competencies HR teams assess.
In hiring, hard skills answer the question “can this person do the job?” and soft skills answer “how will they do it with this team?”. That is why they are checked at every stage, from the interview to the probationary period.
Soft skills vs hard skills
Criterion | Hard skills | Soft skills |
|---|---|---|
What they are | Technical knowledge for the role | Ways of working and dealing with people |
How they are gained | Study, courses, certifications | Experience, practice, feedback |
How they are assessed | Technical tests, qualifications, work samples | Competency-based interviews, case studies, references |
Examples | Payroll, Excel, a foreign language, coding | Communication, teamwork, adaptability |
Why are soft skills important?
A hiring mistake on soft skills is expensive: the new hire knows the tasks, but the team loses time to conflict, rework and misunderstandings. For the business, that means higher turnover, more management time and sometimes a repeat search.
Soft skills are also transferable: someone who communicates well and adapts quickly learns new systems and processes faster.
Examples of soft skills
Skill | What it looks like at work | Interview question |
|---|---|---|
Communication | Explains clearly, listens and adapts the message | Tell me about a time you explained something complex to someone new to the topic. |
Teamwork | Shares information and keeps commitments to the team | Describe a team project that went well. What was your part? |
Problem solving | Looks for causes and proposes solutions | What was the last problem you solved without being asked? |
Adaptability | Adjusts priorities when the situation changes | Tell me about a major change at work. What did you do in the first weeks? |
Time management | Prioritises and meets deadlines | How did you organise your work the last time you had several deadlines at once? |
Recognises their own and others' emotions | What do you do when you get feedback you disagree with? |
How to find out a candidate's soft skills?
- Pick 3 to 5 soft skills for the role and describe what good looks like for each one.
- Run a structured interview, asking every candidate the same questions so answers can be compared fairly.
- Ask about real behavior in a behavioral interview, using the STAR method: situation, task, action, result.
- Add a case study or role play, such as replying to an unhappy customer.
- Score with an interview scorecard on a 1 to 5 scale, completed by each interviewer before the debrief to limit the halo effect.
- Confirm through reference checks by asking for examples of the same skills.
Avoid judging on impressions such as eye contact, posture or clothing. They do not predict job performance and open the door to unconscious bias, for example against neurodivergent candidates.
What questions will help test soft skills?
Behavioral and situational questions
- Tell me about a time you found it hard to agree with a colleague. What did you do?
- A customer complains about a deadline that is outside your control. How do you respond?
- Two managers give you urgent tasks at the same time. How do you decide what comes first?
Questions about previous work experience
- What role did you play in your team beyond your own responsibilities: organiser, idea generator, mediator?
- What was the most stressful situation in your last job and how did you handle it?
- Which soft skill have you worked on in the past year, and how?
Soft skills and fair hiring in the UK
Soft skills assessments must be based on criteria linked to the job. Under the Equality Act 2010, employers must not discriminate against candidates because of protected characteristics such as age, disability, race or sex, and must make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for disabled candidates. “Not a culture fit” is not a safe reason to reject someone.
Interview notes and test results are personal data under UK GDPR: keep only what you need for the hiring decision and store it securely.
How PeopleForce helps assess soft skills
In Recruit, you set up interview scorecards for each role, with rating, text or choice questions for every skill. Each interviewer completes their own scorecard and gives an overall rating from 1 to 5, and the candidate's evaluation is calculated from all submitted scorecards.
To check skills before the interview, add candidate testing. After hiring, the same competencies are reviewed in Perform.
FAQ
Which soft skills matter most?
Employers most often look for communication, teamwork, problem solving, adaptability and time management. The right set depends on the role: empathy matters most in customer service, giving feedback in a management role.
Can soft skills be developed?
Yes, through practice, mentoring, regular feedback and projects that require them. It works best as part of a development plan with clear goals.
What is the difference between soft skills and competencies?
A competency combines the knowledge, skills and attitudes a role requires. Soft skills are its interpersonal and behavioral part.
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