While the shelf life of technical skills is relatively short, soft skills are always important, regardless of an employee’s role or how technology evolves. This year, talent professionals are laser-focused on building soft skills— interpersonal skills that are important for success on the job.
Recently LinkedIn surfaced data from its network of over 20 million jobs to see which skills are in high demand relative to the supply of people who have them to create a list of the soft skills that companies need most in 2020. Topping the global rankings are creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.
Soft skills are essential for any new-hire to fit into your company culture and be productive. While resumes help you evaluate knowledge and experience, evaluating candidates’ soft skills can be more difficult. eSkill’s library of job-relevant and subject-specific soft skills assessment tests measure a variety of soft skills with predictive accuracy from persuasion to collaboration, adaptability, interpersonal communication skills, and more.
Job-Based Assessments
With the largest library of “off-the-shelf” job-specific skills tests in the assessment industry, eSkill helps companies identify candidates with the critical soft skills and technical skills needed for positions of every type and in every industry.
For example, eSkill’s Chat Center Operator Skills Test measures soft skills, including problem-solving, communication, critical thinking, time management, verbal reasoning skills, and emotional intelligence. These soft skills are tested simultaneously with required technical skills and knowledge, such as the ability to navigate and use chat software, fill-in form typing, work with Excel spreadsheets, etc. For instance, a chat simulation may require the test-taker to communicate with a customer who noticed a mistake on their invoice. The candidate must communicate appropriately with the customer, as well as identify the error and correct the error in the software program.
By creating soft skills tests and simulations that replicate real-life work situations, it is possible to see how candidates will perform on the job. This objective approach allows companies to make data-driven hiring and employee development decisions.
Measuring Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, evaluate, and respond to your own emotions and the emotions of others. It drives all interpersonal communication, including persuasion and collaboration. eSkill uses well-developed measures of emotional intelligence within job-specific and subject-specific, as it is a valid predictor of performance in nearly all occupations.
General Cognitive Abilities
Cognitive abilities are the core skills your brain uses to think, remember, read, reason, learn, and pay attention to details. eSkill offers “off-the-shelf” soft skills tests that evaluate specific cognitive abilities, such as the Logical Thinking Skills Test, Attention to Detail Skills Test, Numerical Reasoning Skills Test, Spatial Reasoning Skills Test, and Verbal Reasoning Skills Test. With eSkill’s user-friendly platform, these assessments can easily be combined with any other test.
A Comprehensive Approach
While candidates need soft skills to thrive in the modern workplace, it is also beneficial to test for other job-relevant skills. Although technical skills and knowledge shouldn’t be a proxy for eliminating a potential new-hire in today’s candidate-driven talent market, understanding candidates’ and employees’ baseline knowledge is key to quick and effective onboarding, training, and workforce development.
Maintaining consistency during the hiring process and while making workforce development decisions is imperative to a successful outcome. Since it is so easy for HR professionals to be swayed by an outgoing personality, using soft skills assessment tests to evaluate individuals in an unbiased and objective manner ensures all candidates are given a fair chance.
eSkill has a nearly 20-year track record of Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance–the best in the assessment industry. With eSkill’s legally defensible employment tests, you will be able to evaluate candidates and existing employees with confidence. eSkill’s dedicated Customer Success Managers can help you select or develop valid employment assessments that align with your job requirements and meet corresponding federal guidelines.
eSkill’s online employment tests make the assessment process easier than ever before and allow companies to measure the elusive soft skills with predictive accuracy. Soft skill assessment tests create a more objective process for evaluation, enable HR professionals to evaluate more candidates from a larger talent pool, and track the skills of the existing workforce.
Learn more about the benefits of using eSkill’s soft skills tests and job-specific skills tests to find qualified candidates quickly.
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