What Are Soft Skills — and How Do You Hire for Them?

You can train someone on systems, tools, and processes, but how they communicate, collaborate, and adapt is what ultimately shapes your team. These soft skills influence everything from how tasks get done to how people work together, and that’s why they’re such an important consideration when you’re hiring the right people for your small business.

Here’s how to identify and hire candidates who bring both the right qualifications and the right capabilities to your team.

What are soft skills?

Soft skills refer to competencies on the “human side” of work, including communication, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, adaptability, and teamwork. Some hold that these skills are somewhat inherent, a part of your personality, but can be further developed over time as experience is gained.

Hard skills, on the other hand, are technical, teachable tasks, like knowing a system, running reports, or using specific tools. While hard skills can get someone in the door, soft skills can determine how far they go.

The most important types of soft skills

When working with teams, soft skills are not “nice to have,” but truly fundamental. These four soft skills can make all the difference between getting by and doing well when roles conflict and goals change.

Communication

Talking is only part of communication; you also need an employee who is clear, concise, actively listens, and tailors messages to the audience.

In a small business, this shows up as responding to customers, keeping the team aligned, giving feedback, and asking the right questions. When communication breaks down, work slows and tension builds.

As DeVon Christopher Johnson, Chairman and CEO of BOMESI Foundation, notes, communication skills matter because “teams, clients, and communities are not monolithic.” Different people process information and respond in different ways, so how an individual communicates is equally important as the message.

Strong communication also requires what Johnson refers to as “contextual intelligence,” or “the ability to read a room, understand power dynamics, and adapt.”

“That can’t, for now, be replaced by AI,” he emphasized.

Teamwork

In small businesses, teamwork often means stepping beyond defined roles and providing support wherever it’s needed. Teamwork requires an openness to different points of view, the ability to work with diverse personalities, and prioritizing shared goals over individual gains. The most effective teams have members who naturally support one another without anyone telling them to.

[Read more: 5 Important Ways to Encourage Teamwork at Your Small Business]

Problem-solving

As any business owner knows, things go wrong. Problem-solving skills influence how someone responds in those moments. Does that person freeze, or do they think it through? Do they only point out problems, or do they also offer solutions? It might look like handling customer concerns or complaints, troubleshooting system issues, or finding a faster way to complete a task.

Adaptability

Small business employees are constantly dealing with changes. Priorities shift, roles evolve, and what worked last month might not work today. Adaptability means adjusting to circumstances without falling apart, remaining flexible, learning quickly, and modifying your strategy when needed.

“Adaptability is essential,” emphasized Dr. Jeff Ditzell, Lead Psychiatrist at Dr. Ditzell Psychiatry. “The workplace is constantly shifting, and leaders who can pivot without becoming overwhelmed set the tone for everyone else.”

All of these people-minded proficiencies, when combined with the appropriate hard skills, can lead to better professional growth, performance, and long-term success. However, different jobs may require different soft skills to varying degrees. For example, candidates in customer-facing roles should be able to empathize, communicate, and understand others’ feelings. More internal-facing jobs may require candidates to solve problems and manage themselves. These jobs still need strong soft skills, but in a different order of importance.

How to identify soft skills in an interview 

You can't tell if someone has soft skills just by looking at their resume. This is where intentional, behavioral interviewing comes in. To determine if a candidate possesses the soft skills needed for the job role:

• Ask behavior-based questions. Instead of what they would do, find out what they have done. Ask questions such as "Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult customer," or "Describe a time when your priorities changed suddenly." Past behavior is one of the best ways to predict future performance, so pay close attention to how they tell the story, not just what happened.
• Listen for language, ownership, and accountability. Do they admit their mistakes and take responsibility, or do they blame others? Strong candidates will say things like, "This is how I could have done better," or "This is how I handled it." That level of accountability shows maturity, self-awareness, and willingness to grow, traits you can’t train overnight.
• Look for clarity in communication. Are they clear, straightforward, and easy to follow? Do they stay focused or get sidetracked? It's not enough to be confident, one also has to be understood. That clarity matters every day with a small team.
• Listen to how they solve problems. When they discuss a problem, do they focus only on the issue, or do they explain their thought process and solution? The ability to solve problems well can add a stabilizing influence, even when things are messy. Candidates who can clearly explain how they navigate challenges tend to be more adaptable and effective in real-world environments.
• Pay attention to how well they can adapt. Ask about changes like new systems, new roles, and unexpected problems, and how open-minded they are to these changes.  The best candidates won't act like change is easy, but they will show you that they can adapt to change without getting stuck.

During your interviews, you're not only looking for strong individual answers but also patterns in how candidates think, communicate, and handle pressure.  When candidates are equally qualified, those patterns often become the deciding factor in hiring decisions.

“The most important soft skill tie-breaker for me is [a candidate’s] energy and attitude,” said Suzette Schilling, Chief Human Resources Officer at EBG Solutions. “My team and I will be spending a lot of time with this person, and I want to work side by side as a team knowing that the energy is good, this person is competent to own their part of the work, and [they have] a good sense of humor.”

[Read more: Smart Questions to Ask When Interviewing Sales Candidates]

How to test for soft skills 

Interviews are a good starting point to assess candidates’ soft skills, but to really get a sense of someone's aptitudes, you need to see them in action. Here are a few ways to “test” different skill areas during the hiring process:

• Work samples. Give candidates a task that is similar to what they will do in the job, such as writing a response to a customer, setting up a workflow, or sharing an idea. You’ll get a feel for how they interact, their attention to detail, and how they think.
• Role-playing scenarios. Create real-life scenarios, like dealing with an irate customer or making decisions as a team. This shows how emotionally adept and adaptable they are and how they react in the moment.
• Situational prompts. Even though the scenario is a made-up example, it's still useful to see how someone breaks down a problem and how they plan to resolve it.
• Reference checks. In addition to confirming a candidate’s employment and dates, ask how they worked with others, handled stress, and responded to feedback.
• Assessments or structured evaluations. These resources can help assess teamwork or problem-solving skills. Structured questions can reveal patterns of behavior that interviews might miss, and combining these tools with interviews provides a more complete candidate profile.

Scorecards and debriefs 

If you don’t have a plan for how you'll evaluate potential employees, you’ll default to opinions. That's when scorecards and debriefs are useful, helping evaluate soft skills with intent rather than instinct.

A scorecard tells you exactly what to look for before the interview process even begins. Instead of general phrases like “great communicator,” look for specific, observable behaviors, such as how clearly the interviewee communicates, handles pressure, and works with others. Looking for these features helps everyone stay aligned and focused on the same expectations.

The next step is the debrief. After the interview, you’re saying more than “I liked them” or “I didn't." Instead, you’re comparing notes based on what you saw and heard. Using scorecards in the debrief process helps hiring teams make more consistent, objective, and data-driven decisions. 

Common hiring mistakes with soft skills 

Soft skills are significant, but they're also the most easily misread. People often rely on their gut, first impressions, or a general sense of what seems “right” when hiring someone. This scenario is where things can actually go wrong. Some of the potential pitfalls of relying on personal opinions include:

• The “halo effect.” The halo effect occurs when a strong trait, such as confidence or charisma, overshadows everything else. Someone can come off as polished and smart, and you may assume they’re strong in every area. But confidence doesn’t always equal ability, so it's important to consider the overall picture. Being friendly or outgoing doesn't mean someone knows how to handle stress, work well with others, or manage conflict maturely.
• Overvaluing cultural fit. Culture fit is a good consideration when hiring, but it’s also often misunderstood. It's not necessarily a “cultural fit” if you hire someone because they seem familiar or are like you. A strong company culture is built on bringing together people with different points of view, experiences, and strengths who also align on values.
• Lack of structure in the hiring process. If you rely on opinions rather than a thorough, structured assessment of a candidate, it can lead to bias and inconsistencies. Personality testing, along with consistent criteria to evaluate and verify candidates' qualifications and experience, can provide a more complete picture of how those individuals think, work, and interact.

Soft skills are vital, so think carefully about whom you hire and your hiring decisions. If you make assumptions, it can lead to a team that may look impressive on paper but in reality doesn’t perform or function well.

[Read more: 5 Alternatives to the Myers-Briggs Personality Test]

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