10/11/2017

Why You Need to Hire for Soft Skills, Not Experience

Hiring managers focus too much on selecting applicants based on their hard skills

It’s no secret that business owners are struggling to find good employees these days. According to Patrick Valtin, a talent acquisition and retention consultant and author of No-Fail Hiring 2.0, the problem is not that there aren’t enough qualified candidates—it’s that employers are defining “qualified” all wrong.

The Importance of Soft Skills
“Many small business owners are focusing too much on selecting applicants primarily based on their hard skills,” explains Valtin. If you’re looking for job candidates with specific skills and experience, you could be making a big mistake. According to a Leadership IQ study, almost half of new hires fail within 18 months. Just 11 percent of those failures are due to a lack of hard skills; the rest stem from a lack of soft skills.

Focusing solely on hard skills not only increases the risk of a failed hire, but can also lead you to overspend to land that hire. “Technically qualified applicants know their value,” says Valtin, “and in today’s applicant-driven marketplace, they often inflate their salary expectations.” That means you could end up paying more than you can really afford for a candidate who may not work out.

Please click here to read the complete article on Small Business Trends.