Soft Skills Report

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Recommendations for Hiring Employees with Good Soft Skills

Step 1: Job Description A short list of soft skills will be included in the online job description postings. This will display to job seekers that the listed soft skills are necessary for the job. Although this will not test job seekers on their soft skill effectiveness, it will give them a description of the company’s desired employee. List of Several Soft Skills Desired by the Company:

• Communication • Effective listening • Leadership • Planning • Giving feedback

• Adaptability • Resilience • Emotional

intelligence • Problem solving

• Organization • Decision making • Conflict resolution • Collaboration • Motivation

Step 2: Interview A series of behavioral questions will be asked during interviews in order to pinpoint a candidate’s soft skills. Interviews will be conducted by managers, who will evaluate the responses from candidates. Three to four behavioral questions should be asked during each interview. These questions should reflect the soft skills needed for the position. Questions can be spread out or asked consecutively. Questions:

• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with another employee at work. How did you resolve the conflict? What was the result?

• Describe an example where you were given multiple assignments at once. How did you stay organized?

• Tell me about a time when you were in charge of a group. How did you manage your assignments and team members?

• Give an example when you were given a task you have never done before. How did you react to this change? Did you learn from this experience?

• Describe a time where you were assigned a team project. How did you work with your group members?

• In your past job experience, did you build friendships with other employees? • Describe a time a customer or client was satisfied with your service. What was

the result? • Tell me about a time you were under pressure. How did you handle the situation?

What was the result? • Give me an example of when you were not able to meet a deadline or finish all

your work. What did you do? Did you learn anything?

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• Describe a time when you used written communication to interact with someone. How did you ensure your recipient understood you?

• Give an example of when you made a mistake. What did you do to correct it? What was the result?

• Tell me about a goal you achieved in the workplace. What steps did you take to reach this goal?

• Describe a time when you had to motivate others. How did you inspire them? What was the result?

Step 3: Evaluation Using the template below, managers will take short notes of the responses for each question and evaluate them after the interview. According to Workable (2017) managers must pay attention to typical answers, off-topic answers, unrealistic answers, unanswered questions, and a lack of core soft skills.

Question # Notes Rating (High to Low)

5 4 3 2 1

Rating: 5- Exceptional: Candidate exceptionally displays soft skill by providing detailed description of the situation and how it helped them succeed in the workplace. Candidate used the experience as a learning opportunity. 4- Above Average: Candidate displays soft skill by explaining the situation and the results. Candidate meets the position requirements. 3- Average: Candidate only describes the situation and the lists results. Candidate meets job standards and may have basic understanding of the soft skill. 2- Satisfactory: Candidate describes of the situation, but does not explain the results or what they learned. Improvement in soft skill is needed. 1- Unsatisfactory: Candidate does not provide an answer, or provides unrelated or off topic answer. Candidate does not clearly possess the related soft skill. Managers will consider the candidates who offered the strongest responses displaying effective soft skills. They will offer positions to candidates who have relevant experience and whose responses received a rating of 5 and 4. This will ensure that the candidate already has several soft skills when entering the position and has the ability to develop and train their soft skills.

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Recommendations for Training Employees to Improve Their Soft Skills

A monthly team workshop will ensure that all employees are continuously developing their soft skills. The workshop will be conducted by managers, who will evaluate the performance and responses from employees. Activity 1: Ice Breakers Each meeting will begin with discussion topic in order to create a comfortable environment. Managers will pick 3 topics and each employee will get to discuss. Possible topics:

• Weekend plans • Favorite

restaurant • Travel desires • Greatest

achievements • Fears/Phobias • Hidden talents • iPhone or

Android • Favorite holiday

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Activity 2: Build a Tower The group will be divided into teams that will compete to build the tallest free-standing tower in a given amount of time with the resources available to them. Teams may trade resources which will encourage them to generate win-win scenarios for their negotiations.

1. Group will be divided into small teams. Each team will be randomly assigned a box with different building materials.

2. Teams will be given a little time for planning (5 minutes). During this time groups will have to communicate, plan, and brainstorm ideas to come up with a feasible project.

3. Teams are allowed to engage each other to trade materials (5 minutes). Since all starter-kits will contain different materials teams will focus on negotiating to gain valuable resources to carry out their plan.

4. Timer is set and construction begins (10 minutes). Each team will have the same time to complete construction of the tower. In this stage they will implement their plan and work as a team to complete the activity by the deadline.

5. Facilitators will judge which tower is the highest and award prizes to the group with the highest, free-standing tower.

Activity 3: Scenarios Employees will be given different scenarios that require several soft skills in order to effectively solve the problem. Employees will list the soft skills needed for each scenario and then explain ways to solve the problem.

• Scenario A: Two team members do not get along and refuse to communicate during a group project. How do you handle this situation?

• Scenario B: Your group proposal deadline has been changed from 3 weeks to 1 week, giving you less time to compile everything together. What do you do?

• Scenario C: You arrive late to work several times a week and always struggle to submit projects on time. You learn that this is affecting your job, and your manager has given you a final warning before termination. What do you do?

• Scenario D: You are assigned a group project that requires you to meet with your members often. You learn that each member has busy schedules and is not able to meet in person. What do you do?

• Scenario E: You learn that your office software will be changed. Employees will temporarily be required to learn a new computer system. How do you handle this situation?

• Activity 4: Scenarios Employees will be given different scenarios that require several soft skills in order to effectively solve the problem. Employees will list the soft skills needed for each scenario and then explain ways to solve the problem.

• Scenario A: Two team members do not get along and refuse to communicate during a group project. How do you handle this situation?

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• Scenario B: Your group proposal deadline has been changed from 3 weeks to 1 week, giving you less time to compile everything together. What do you do?

• Scenario C: You arrive late to work several times a week and always struggle to submit projects on time. You learn that this is affecting your job, and your manager has given you a final warning before termination. What do you do?

• Scenario D: You are assigned a group project that requires you to meet with your members often. You learn that each member has busy schedules and is not able to meet in person. What do you do?

• Scenario E: You learn that your office software will be changed. Employees will temporarily be required to learn a new computer system. How do you handle this situation?

Activity 5: Interview Practice

• First, a member of the group who is facilitating will interview another group member, choosing two questions randomly from a large list of prepared interview questions (from the “Hiring Employees” section and other sources).

• The group member, who will not know what questions they will be asked, will answer them. They will have a minute for each (a timer will be used).

• The larger group gives feedback on what the interviewee did well and what they can work on.

• The interviewee picks a random person from the larger group, choosing two questions randomly from the list above.

• The interviewee, who will not know what questions they will be asked, will answer them. They will have a minute for each (a timer will be used).

• The larger group gives feedback on what the interviewee did well and what they can work on.

• The interviewee picks a random person from the larger group, choosing two questions randomly from the list above.

• The new interviewee, who will not know what questions they will be asked, will answer them. They will have a minute for each (a timer will be used).

• The larger group gives feedback on what the new interviewee did well and what they can work on.

• The group will repeat this process as many times as time allows. Activity 6: Reflection/Wrap-Up Each smaller group discusses what they learned from the activity and how they can apply it to their daily practices.