5 Soft Skills to Look For on a Resume

Whether you’re actively hiring or just in the process of planning out next year’s staffing needs, you’re surely knee-deep in resumes. Resumes can be a slog to get through—at lot of them are boring by nature, rife with educational background and hard skills. Resumes can get overlooked or passed on because sometimes the review is just… bored with reading the same set of accolades over and over again. If candidates aren’t taking the time to tailor their resumes to your open positions, you end up repeatedly reviewing the same information from candidate to candidate. How do you weed through the noise to find the applicants most qualified for your role? Start looking for soft skills. Here’s what we mean…

According to The Balance Careers, soft skills are “non-technical skills that relate to how you work.” These include such examples as time management skills, your communication style, and interpersonal skills. By contrast, hard skills are the skills required to successfully do a job—HTML coding, PowerPoint, conversion copywriting, etc. and are usually listed in a job description as “requirements.” These are generally measurable talents and may require certifications or advanced training. While hard skills are critical for any potential candidate, soft skills are often what’s going to determine whether or not the candidate is ultimately successful in the role. Soft skills are what help ensure a great “culture” fit, too.

Communication Skills

There’s so much to say about great communication skills. They’re essential for collaboration and improving efficiency, boosting morale and streamlining processes. Effective communicators are able to make sure everyone – from management on down – is on the same page.

Critical Thinking 

Those who are critical thinkers lean on rationality to determine their next steps. This skill is tough to come by, but it’s an essential bonus for employees to have in their soft skills arsenal. An article on the job site Indeed.com outlined it nicely: “A critical thinker doesn’t only accumulate information well, but they also know how to use the information to deduce facts and determine outcomes. By conceptualizing outcomes, critical thinkers tend to be better at solving problems than people who simply memorize information.” Critical thinkers make management’s job that much easier. Because they tend to be independent workers, critical thinkers are great and going heads-down to get the job done in a way that makes sense.

Working Autonomously 

There’s nothing more time-consuming than having to spend huge chunks of time training, explaining, and teaching employees how to complete a task. The most efficient workers are the ones that can get things done autonomously, meaning they don’t require handholding or a ton of explanation. Give them the assignment and a due date, and they’re generally all set.

Time Management 

Time management goes beyond showing up for a shift when you’re supposed to. Candidates with great time management skills are able to juggle multiple projects or tasks at once, prioritize effectively, and deliver what’s required of them as soon as it’s needed. They are more efficient and productive, which lends itself nicely to the ultimate success of your business.

Flexibility

Especially in times like these, amid the pandemic and a possible recession, it’s really important for employees to be flexible. Sometimes they may need to come in early or stay late. Perhaps you need to switch to a remote working environment for a time, or introduce staff furloughs. And then there’s the inevitability of staff resignations and new hires coming on board—which just means candidates need to be able to pitch in whenever and wherever needed to ensure business can continue as normal.

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