Soft Skills Assessment: Test your Soft Skills Online Now

Soft skills are becoming the way companies are future-proofing their talents as we face changing workplace trends faster than ever-paces. Investing in your talents' soft skills is like building a no-regrets skill set - the grounding that will be useful no matter how an employee’s specific role may evolve. 

LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report showed that 92% of talent acquisition professionals reported soft skills are equally or more important to hire for than hard skills. On top of that, 89% said that when a new hire doesn’t work out, it’s because they lack critical soft skills.

For organizations to make sure they prioritize their people’s professional development, soft skill assessments are the key.

What’s in this post?

1. What are soft skills?
2. What is a soft skills assessment?
3. How to assess soft skills with AI behavioral intelligence software?
4. How are organizations implementing soft skills assessments into their employee development processes?

What are soft skills?

First of all, let's clarify what soft skills are.

Soft skills are those invisible, harder-to-define skills that tend to be harder to measure - the interpersonal skills that help you get along with your colleagues and bosses, how well you understand and contribute to the company culture, how well you can adapt to new changes, and your sense of creativity, all come under the umbrella of soft skills.

The job-specific skills you’ve acquired for a role, which could be your ability to speak a foreign language or how well you can do sales, are all skills counted as hard skills.

What is a soft skills assessment?

Soft skills have been gaining currency even before the crisis, but the skill shift that we're witnessing post-pandemic is giving impetus for organizations to decide on which L&D training investments will shore up the future of the business.

This is where soft skills and specifically soft skill assessments become crucial.

A soft skills assessment will help you to identify skills like social attitudes, communication skills, emotional intelligence, and conflict management and tell you how to improve these skills that are critical to forging and maintaining strong and healthy relationships with clients and coworkers. 

How to assess soft skills with AI behavioral intelligence software

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already being utilized in a wide range of industries, and its adoption by companies globally has more than doubled since 2017.

It aids the healthcare industry greatly in medical imaging, drug discovery, and precision medicine to improve patient outcomes and make healthcare more efficient in general.
In the finance industry, AI’s strengths are used for fraud detection, risk management, and financial forecasting to improve the accuracy and speed of economic decision-making.

The education industry is no exception; artificial intelligence promises considerable benefits to aid learning. In fact, businesses are beginning to adopt AI across their operations, including in their L&D programs. Personalized learning, intelligent tutoring systems, unlocking new immersive learning possibilities - AI to assessing employees’ soft skills.

So how does it work?

Based on abundant data points of microexpressions, body language, and voice patterns, computers can detect emotion in one’s voice and identify personality traits from a combination of physical movements and voice inflections. The software can also give insight into how a customer would perceive an employee, for instance, a sales representative at a company.

How are organizations implementing soft skills assessments in their employee development processes?

With the AI behavioral intelligence platform Retorio, organizations can instantly receive in-depth assessments of candidates’ personalities and communication behavior when employees 

Companies should conduct assessments of soft skills since they play a crucial role in an employee's ability to perform their job effectively.

Abilities such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, and emotional intelligence are all growing in importance and are essential for success in most jobs, as they enable employees to work well with others, handle difficult situations, and make effective decisions.

By assessing an employee's soft skills, a company can identify areas for improvement and provide targeted training to help the employee develop those skills, leading to improved communication, increased collaboration, and higher job satisfaction among employees. Furthermore, it can help the company identify and hire employees who are a good fit for the company culture and work style.

Want to assess your soft skills today? Test Retorio's AI behavioral intelligence platform now!

FAQ

1. Why is Soft Skills Training Important?

Soft skills training helps trainees to become more successful and happy with their work, leading to increased production and decreased absence and turnover rates. For example, you could acquire new conflict resolution skills that will help you deal with conflicts, and handle them better to work more effectively with your coworkers. 

Benefits of soft skill training: 

• More effective communication
• Stronger leadership 
• Improved problem solving 
• Enhanced creative and critical thinking
• Improved teamwork, efficiency, and productivity 
• Higher employee retention
• Improved customer service 
• Better sales approach 
  
  

2. How to overcome skills shortage?

In this volatile and unpredictable business landscape, a skills shortage is almost inevitable. That's exactly why it is becoming increasingly crucial for companies and L&D leaders to take action before it's too late.

How?

By addressing the skills shortage through re-skilling, and essentially closing those skill gaps. And surveys find companies who are focussing on employee training and L&D efforts are seeing their efforts pay off.