Serious Soft Skills

In Week 5 of our Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, we look at how to implement soft skills into the hiring process, which will provide valuable insights into the process for hiring managers and job applicants.

Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham, co-hosts of the Serious Soft Skills Podcast, cover the following topics:

• Avoiding the trap of only looking at technical skills
• Evaluating applicants’ functional skills along with soft skills
• How applicants can articulate how they can blend soft skills with technical skills are the gold standard
• How the best applicants can explain how they transfer technical information into actionable skills in the workplace
• Why open-ended questions encourage good applicants to talk about their soft skills
• How standard questions can help compare candidates and specific soft skills you are seeking
• Gearing questions around soft skills
• Why it might help to provide foundational questions in advance of an interview
• Why checking of qualifications is not the best way to interview
• Asking “how” questions
• What are the best methods for evaluating technical skills outside of the interview
• Proven tips for conducting a good interview for you and your interviewee

Next Week

In Week 6, our final week of our Six Weeks of Serious Soft Skills Strategy, we will dig deeper into how to integrate soft skills into the hiring process so employers can find better-fitting candidates who can help their organizations grow.