Interview Questions to Explore Soft Skills

More than half of hiring managers agree that evaluating soft skills is one of the most difficult tasks in the hiring process. This is because you need to determine whether a candidate has a personality that matches the company's expectations and culture or not.

To find out, questions about personality and behavior need to be asked. The answers to these questions will show the candidate's performance in the new role and environment. Therefore, it is important for you as the hiring managers to ask questions about the candidate's personality and behavior in a professional environment.

Interview Questions for Candidates

When exploring a candidate's soft skills, you should focus on two areas, namely self-awareness and intuition. Self-awareness can help you see whether the candidate is a person who takes responsibility for their work or not, while intuition will help you see the candidate's empathy and cooperation later in the group. To find out the candidate's soft skills, here are some questions you can ask.

1. Test Candidate's Adaptability

“Tell us about a task you had to do but had never done before. How did you react and what did you learn?”

Candidates who have these characteristics show that even when working under pressure, candidates will remain calm and willing to try new things to carry out their duties. The candidate will quickly read the situation and adapt to a given work style. Not only that, compared to others, this kind of candidate also tends to provide effective solutions when there is a problem.

2. Understanding Work Culture

“What do you think are the three most important aspects of work?”

Culture is a reflection of the company's core values and mission. Ideally, you want a candidate who can fit into the company culture. One thing to note is that there is no right or wrong culture in a company.

Meanwhile, hiring well-adjusted employees will increase the company's chances of success. In order for candidates to understand the company culture, before conducting the interview process, provide a brief overview of the company's profile, vision and mission.

3. Assessing Collaborative Capabilities

“Have you ever worked with someone difficult? How did you handle the work situation at that time?”

In solving problems, the work environment emphasizes teamwork. Even if it's a technical job, the ability to interact and communicate is very important in getting the job done. Therefore, it is important for you to assess the ability of the candidate in working relationships with others. The candidate you interview must be able to prove that they can work with other people in the company.

4. Assessing Leadership Capabilities

“Have you ever been in a situation that didn't go according to plan? How did you react and what were the results?”

When you run into something wrong, you want someone who is proactive about the solution. These questions help you to evaluate the candidate's leadership skills. However, keep in mind that leadership is not always about organizing and managing other people.

Leadership also means being able to be a good example for others. Because when going through the recruitment process, you want to hire candidates who can demonstrate the ability to look after and inspire their co-workers.

5. Test Decision Making Capabilities

“When the manager is not around, how do you deal with urgent matters?”

In addition to looking for people who feel capable of filling vacant positions, it is also important for you to see the potential for candidate development. These questions will help you to gauge the candidate's ability to make decisions. When in such a situation, a competent employee knows what to do.

6. Setting Priority

“How do you handle multiple jobs at the same time?”

Testing the candidate's ability to set priorities, ask these questions. It is also used to find out the candidate's time management skills when facing a series of jobs at once. Apart from having to be able to adapt, be able to deal with stress, and manage distractions, employees must also be able to manage workloads and follow deadlines.

7. Decision Making Ability

“Can you tell us about a challenge that you have never experienced before. How do you deal with it?”

In all professional fields and environments, these two soft skills are extremely important. Because there will always be challenges in the professional environment, and candidates must be honest in explaining how to overcome those problems. That way, you will find competent candidates.

8. Testing Communication Skills

“How do you explain complex topics to clients or colleagues?”

This question is asked with the aim of testing the candidate's communication skills. Communication is one of the important soft skills that must be possessed by all employees. A candidate may stand out in one job, but that may not necessarily serve the interests of the team. Especially when they can't communicate properly.

9. Response to Criticism

"What does constructive criticism mean to you?"

There are many people who do not like to be criticized. Meanwhile criticism is very important for the progress of employees. The answers given by candidates can be a reflection of how they will respond and deal with criticism. Being able to accept criticism is an important factor in work. Because with criticism employees will know things that can be improved for individual and collective progress.

10. Assessing Employee's Honesty

“Have you ever been honest, only to end up in trouble?”

In many ways, having honest employees benefits the company. Therefore, one of the soft skills that must be evaluated is honesty. This is done to find out if the experiences and abilities they say are true. A person who dares to admit mistakes is a hard worker. When carrying out their duties, they will try and give their best.

In contrast to hard skills, soft skills cannot be measured, so identifying them is difficult and time consuming. However, these skills are critical to building more cohesive teams, increasing employee retention and reducing recruitment costs. Therefore, to find suitable candidates identify the candidate's personality more deeply.