Stop Hiring "Brilliant Jerks": 5 Soft Skills Assessment Strategies That Actually Work

Professional competencies are a necessary, but not a sufficient condition. You can hire a brilliant developer or a top-performing sales manager and discover three months later that half the team has handed in their resignation letters. The reason: the person didn't fit the culture, turned out to be unpredictable, or simply didn't know how to work in a team with other people. For HR professionals, the initial screening is, honestly, a tedious routine. Dozens of intro calls, and by the fifth minute, it's already clear: wrong person. But by that point, you've already spent an hour — yours and the candidate's. The good news is that if you phrase your screening questions correctly upfront, you can filter out irrelevant candidates before the call even occurs. Here are five methods that let you extract the most information about soft skills with the fewest questions. 5 Methods for In-Depth Soft Skills Assessment 1. Behavioral Interview (STAR) This method is built on the principle: past behavi