How to Recruit (招聘) with Softer Skills in Mind
Soft skills matter to employers. An analysis of almost 5000 job descriptions showed companies have shifted away from emphasizing financial and operational skills towards social skills—an ability to listen, reflect, communicate and empathise (共情).
The trouble is that soft skills are hard to measure. Worse still, the conventional process for recruiting people is often better at recognizing other qualities. The early phases of recruitment focus on screening candidates based on their experiences and hard skills, criteria that are easiest to assess remotely. The later phases, when candidates and employers engage in actual conversation, are better suited to assessing an applicant’s softer skills. Think of how fundamentally unsocial the situation is! Candidates are expected to talk, not listen; to impress, not empathise. Structured interview scripts enable like-for-like comparisons but they also limit the space for naturalness.
Two recent studies of what makes for a good team member agree on what might be described as an ability to read the room. One research found people who can accurately judge the level of influence held by various team members possess a magic power called “status acuity”. Such room-readers reduce group conflict and enhance team performance. They accordingly designed a test, in which participants watched a video of a group performing a task. The participants then rated members of the group based on how much respect each was perceived to hold. People whose ratings were closest to the assessments of the team members themselves had the quality of status acuity.
The other study found that certain individuals consistently made their groups perform better than expected. Such people are genuine team players, capable of making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. These wonderful creatures did not stand out from their peers on IQ tests. But they did significantly better on the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test, an assessment in which participants are shown pictures of various facial expressions and then have to pick the word that best describes what each person is feeling.
Better tests are not the only way to gather more information about soft skills. Don’t just have people higher up the food chain ask interview questions. Ask the people who interact casually with applicants, from the assistants to the receptionists, what they thought of them.
Undeniably, people may succeed in faking their way through the process. And there may be more room for interviewers’ prejudice to emerge. Finding someone annoying may be a signal that someone lacks social skills. But it may also mean that they are nervous or that interviewers are bad-tempered. Recruitment is set to change and is unlikely to become less challenging.
63. What makes the recent recruitment process distinct from the traditional one?
A.Prioritization of soft skills. |
B.Focus on a screening method. |
C.Dependence on structured interview scripts. |
D.Emphasis upon financial and operational skills. |
64. According to the third and fourth paragraph, a person with the ability to read the room is capable of __________.
A.adjusting one’s behavior or attitude swiftly to fit the context |
B.understanding the individual’s perspective to respond appropriately |
C.resolving group conflict or judging facial expressions in a situation |
D.interpreting individual’s role within a team or their mood |
65. What is the purpose of the two studies mentioned in the passage?
A.To identify ways to perfect structured interview scripts. |
B.To discover shortcuts for testing and identifying soft skills. |
C.To explore recipes for cultivating a qualified team member. |
D.To introduce methods of improving candidates’ non-technical skills. |
66. What can be implied from the last two paragraphs?
A.Integrating soft skills assessment into a hiring process won’t introduce side effects. |
B.Employees in lower positions may provide useless insights into applicants’ soft skills. |
C.Interviewers’ prejudice may influence their fair assessments and perceptions of candidates. |
D.There is no possibility of individuals successfully deceiving others during the interview. |