Technical skills and experience aren’t the only things that make a person right for your team. Character traits, interpersonal skills and core values are every bit as important.
These qualities are known as ‘soft skills’, and they should be high on the agenda for any care manager looking to improve their team through recruitment or training.
But how can you add these essential soft skills to your social care team?
In this article, we look at how to:
- Write effective job adverts that attract the right soft skills
- Identify indicators of soft skills within a candidate’s CV
- Spot non-verbal signs of strong soft skills in an interviewee.
How to attract essential soft skills with better job adverts
Most job adverts focus too much on technical qualifications and experience, and not enough on the general qualities that make somebody suitable for the role in question.
So the solution here is simple: split your requirements section into ‘experience’, ‘qualifications’ and ‘soft skills’.
But don’t just say you’re looking for someone with empathy and adaptability. That’s too vague. Instead, be specific about what you’re looking for and why you need it.
For example:
- Empathy, because understanding the feelings and perspectives of colleagues and residents leads to great teamwork and life-improving care
- Adaptability, because situations can evolve quickly here and you’ll be challenged to embrace change and readjust your priorities regularly.
These simple changes should help you attract applicants who are better suited to the role.
Then, you just need to decide who to shortlist from the CVs you receive.
How to identify soft skills in an applicant’s CV
Not everybody is great at writing CVs. And just because someone’s soft skills don’t jump out at you, that’s no reason to place a seemingly well-qualified applicant on the ‘no’ pile.
But if you’ve carefully outlined the essential soft skills in your job advert, you have given applicants an early opportunity to show that they possess them.
Here are two ways an applicant’s CV can reveal strong soft skills.
1. They’ve obviously thought about what you need
Applying for a job is essentially an active listening exercise. Can you hear what the recruiter is asking for? Can you reflect those needs back to them in your skills and experience?
Applicants who do this well might:
- Mirror your advert format by highlighting their soft skills under a clear heading
- Begin their bullet-points with verbs that evidence the behaviours you listed
Look for signs that the CV has been tailored to the role, and with your perspective in mind – it could suggest good levels of empathy, communication skill and attention to detail.
2. They’ve used the STAR technique to show behaviours
Experienced job applicants are familiar with the STAR approach to demonstrating behaviours – i.e. describing a situation, tasks, actions they took, and results achieved.
STAR is easier to use in an interview or a cover letter. But in a CV, it’s possible to use a shortened version – ‘Did X… to achieve Y’ – to highlight behaviours and outcomes.
For example:
- Debriefed colleagues in end-of-shift huddles to allow continuity of high-quality care
- Prepared meals in line with individual dietary needs to maintain full nutritional health.
How to spot soft skills during an interview
In a separate article, we’ll look at interview questions for uncovering soft skills. So here, let’s briefly look at three non-verbal soft skill cues to watch out for in an interview situation.
1. Body language
What we do with our faces, hands and posture during conversation can reveal a great deal about our thoughts on what’s being said – as well as our level of comfort with the situation.
Is your interviewee fidgeting continuously? Are they folding and unfolding their arms or legs a lot? Do they nod or smile appropriately to show they’re engaged in the conversation?
2. Eye contact
Eye contact plays an important role in communication, revealing a number of emotions and skills from confidence and attentiveness to respect, honesty or enthusiasm.
Does your interviewee maintain eye contact while you ask questions? If they look away to formulate their thoughts, do they re-establish a direct gaze when they begin to answer?
3. Tone of voice
Our speaking voice can reveal our confidence and passion for what we’re saying. Passion, especially, is invaluable in a social care worker – and not an easy soft skill to teach.
Does your interviewee’s tone change as they become more animated or serious? Do pauses suggest that their answers are well-considered? Is their breathing steady and relaxed?
Remember: soft skills can always be improved
Don’t forget, lots of people find interviews stressful. Just because somebody fidgets a little, for example, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have poor self-awareness.
And even if they do, you can always help them get better after you hire them.
