Soft skills are key to a company's recruitment process

Here's what a typical job posting looks like when you look at the "Required Profile":

The required candidate profile looks like this:

• Master's degree in Urban Engineering;
• Proficiency in urban planning computer tools such as 3D imaging;
• Strong adaptability and ability to work under tight deadlines;
• Good communication skills and ability to work in a team;
• Strong communication and teamwork skills; 
• Sense of responsibility and leadership;
• Creative and imaginative to suggest new ideas ... ".

The required skills can be separated into two categories:

1. First, technical skills, often recognized by a certificate (engineering and mastery of tools). They are also called hard skills, or in other words "demonstrable" skills.
2. Second, human skills, which are more difficult to assess, now referred to as soft skills (personal aptitudes such as communication skills).
   
   

The proportion of soft skills required is much higher than that of hard skills: this indicates that there is an increased focus on the candidate's personality-related abilities.

In fact, "46% of new hires fail within the first 18 months and 89% of them fail for reasons related to their attitude". (Source: Leadership IQ magazine study)

As a result, recruiters are paying more attention to this matter and are more inclined to look for THE candidate with THE best personality, rather than the one who simply has the required technical skills.

Having the appropriate soft skills for a job is now required for a candidate who wants to find a job. Modern companies also consider it a minimum requirement if they want to stand out from the crowd and survive.

What are soft skills

There are three different types of skills:

• Hard skills can be described as know-how, i.e. all the knowledge and skills acquired through training;
• Life skills are acquired during our career and can be used in our daily lives;
• Soft skills refer to attitudes and character traits. These skills most often relate to emotional intelligence and are evaluated according to a person's behavioural capacity to face a given situation.
•  

Soft skills examples:

Here are some examples of soft skills needed for a person to succeed, especially in a professional environment:

communication, leadership, time management, interpersonal skills, priority setting, teamwork, empathy, flexibility, curiosity, creativity, negotiation, dynamic, listening skills, ...

Why should you care about soft skills first?

5 Reasons:

1) Hard skills are useless without soft skills

For example, even if a person excels in accounting, his expertise is worthless if he cannot manage his time and cannot deliver the accounts on time.

Soft skillsare harder to acquire

A training course, an internship or even a few online courses are usually enough to address the lack of a technical skill. Soft skills have more to do with a person's personality: if they don't have the trait, it's harder to develop it in them. In fact, acquiring an attitude requires a conscious effort, uninterrupted practice, and an unfailing commitment from the concerned individual.

Soft skills are essential for employees, but also for clients

Employees and clients ask for the same things: attentiveness, empathy, full attention, the ability to suggest effective solutions in a timely manner. The ability to fit into the company's environment is more important than technical skills. Soft skills are the guarantee for optimal work capacity.

4) Soft skills guarantee the survival of the company

A company's productivity and efficiency are enhanced when it has a good leader and its members are constantly communicating with each other. Two soft skills alone can bring good results. For example, a company with a person who knows how to adapt and manage at the same time already has a candidate to open a new branch and transfer its corporate culture.

Moreover, soft skills such as curiosity, creativity and constant awareness are crucial for a company to innovate and stay on the market.

5) Short- and long-term benefits:

In all departments and functions, employees need to improve their interpersonal skills, especially to strengthen team dynamics and cohesion. However, this is only one part of the so-called soft skills that are essential to have in the workplace. Here are some benefits that underline the importance of developing soft skills at work, both in the short and long term.

• Boosting productivity at work
• Reduce risk
• Improve customer service
• Increase sales
• Build a stronger team
• More confidence, less stress
• Improve employee retention
  
  
  

Soft skills into practice

Here are a few soft skills examples by profession and the difference between Gen X and Millennials.

Soft skills for executives and decision makers in general:

• Leadership, charisma, including communication skills and listening skills
• Adaptability, agility, creativity, calculated risk-taking, problem management
• Benevolence, empathy - to help others progress

Soft skills in operational and labour tasks (some believe that only hard skills are needed at this level):

• Curiosity and creativity (help to improve the existing system, e.g. clothing factory)
• A specific profession: the soft skills needed for an accountant.

This job doesn't usually require interpersonal skills, nor does it require anything other than. However, having the right people skills makes all the difference:

• Adaptability allows the accountant to move from one system to another, especially with e-accouting;
• Stress management skills are needed, as this job is known to be particularly nerve-wracking ;
• The ability to work as a team, so that the company's finances fit with the rest of the company's activities.