Dan Corbett
One of the key parts to a successful recruitment process, where a person succeeds and is able to build a career with an organisation, is the ability of the process to look beyond a fixed set of skills. Those fixed skills, that can be trained, are obviously important in the day-to-day but it is the soft skills and competencies that will allow a person to build a successful career with an organisation.
The catch is that soft skills are highly intangible and context dependent so understanding the strength of a candidate’s soft skills is more ambiguous and subjective. So why are soft skills so important and becoming more important?
With the increasing prevalence of automation, the nature of work is shifting away from repetitive tasks and increasingly the focus is on the ability to collaborate, innovate, work in a team, adapt and analyse. The pace of technological change has meant that the ability to detect and develop these skills is becoming ever more important for hiring managers in order to ensure a successful hire.
This focus on personality and how a candidate can integrate, build relationships and empathise to influence the business is critical to determining how a candidate can work within and shape a dynamic organisational environment.
What this means is that even though they are of an intangible quality, soft skills should be prioritised and assessed throughout the recruitment process. It is also why it is important for each team and organisation to understand the soft skills and competencies that they require, before entering the recruitment process. You can then determine what questions you need to ask, and what answers you want to hear in order to evaluate candidates against this criteria.
This should lead to an organisation being able to hire a candidate that is able to add value over a long period of time. You will be able to hire someone that can adapt to changing environments, whilst delivering and adding value.
I specialise in project services, business and process improvement. If you would like a confidential discussion on how to progress your job search or career, or you’re having difficulties to bring the right resources to your team, please contact us for a confidential discussion.
Dan Corbett
Consultant
Project Resource Partners
Level 7, 360 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
T +61 3 9949 8100 D +61 3 9949 8105
E dcorbett@projectresourcepartners.com.au