How to Assess Soft Skills in Candidates: The Proven, Research-Backed Method
How to assess soft skills with reliable, science-backed methods proven to improve hiring accuracy and efficiency.
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The uncomfortable truth
Right now, you're probably making executive hiring decisions based on incomplete information
Here's the uncomfortable truth about what's actually happening when UK businesses hire managers and executives:
47% of external leadership hires fail within 18 months. Even internal promotions aren't safe, with 35% failing in the same timeframe.
Let's put that in financial terms. With the average C-level hire costing £150,000+ in recruitment fees alone, plus salary, onboarding, and opportunity costs, a single bad hire can cost your organisation over £500,000.
When you consider that C-level recruitment takes an average of 8-12 months (CIPD, 2024), each failed hire represents enormous wasted investment and 18 months of underperformance.
The Real Cost Breakdown:
• Recruitment fees: £150,000+
• Lost productivity during search: £200,000+
• Severance and re-hiring costs: £100,000+
• Team disruption and morale impact: £50,000+
Total potential cost: £500,000+ per failed hire
The problem isn't finding candidates with the right experience. It's identifying those who can actually lead, make sound decisions under pressure, and inspire teams to deliver results.
89% of hiring failures are due to poor soft skills, not technical competence.
You've probably seen this yourself: technically brilliant professionals who struggle when promoted to management. They understand the business inside out but can't motivate a team, communicate effectively with stakeholders, or make the difficult decisions that leadership demands.
Action point: Before your next senior hire, ask yourself: "What evidence do I have that this person can actually lead?" If the answer is based purely on interview performance and past job titles, you're making decisions with incomplete information.
The gaps in traditional hiring
Why traditional methods fall short for management hiring
If you're hiring managers the traditional way, you're fighting three major challenges:
When hiring for a Managing Director or CEO role, you're not sifting through hundreds of CVs. You might have 5-10 genuinely qualified candidates. This makes every interview precious and every hiring decision critical.
Senior executives are busy people. Coordinating interviews involving multiple stakeholders often takes weeks. By the time you've arranged a panel interview, your best candidates might have accepted offers elsewhere.
Interviews reveal technical competence and communication style, but they're poor at uncovering the deeper leadership traits that predict success. Can this person handle conflict? Do they think strategically under pressure? Will they make sound decisions when facing ambiguous situations?
The result? You make hiring decisions based on incomplete information, and nearly half the time, those decisions don't work out.
The stark reality: Interview-only vs Assessment approach
| Approach | Time to Decision | Success Rate | Cost per Bad Hire | Insights Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interview-Only | 8-12 months | 53% success | £500,000+ | Subjective, limited |
| Assessment + Interview | 4-6 weeks | 85% success | Minimal | Objective, comprehensive |
Action point: Calculate the true cost of your last failed senior hire. Include recruitment fees, lost productivity, severance costs, and team disruption. That number should motivate a better approach.
The solution that actually works
The assessment approach that works for management hiring
Smart hiring teams are moving away from interview-only approaches. Instead, they're using psychometric assessments to get objective insights into leadership potential before investing interview time.
Here's why assessments work so well for management roles:
The assessment advantage:
✓ Objective measurement: Remove guesswork from leadership evaluation. Get consistent data on decision-making, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking.
✓ Scalable insights: Assess 5 candidates or 50 with the same standards. No scheduling conflicts, no interviewer bias.
✓ Deeper visibility: Uncover leadership traits that interviews miss. See how candidates think through complex problems and handle pressure.
✓ Better use of time: Focus your limited interview slots on candidates who already demonstrate leadership potential.
Real Results: Manufacturing Company Success Story
Challenge: A mid-sized manufacturing company had three consecutive failed Operations Director hires over 18 months.
Solution: Implemented our leadership assessment approach combining critical thinking, personality, and situational judgement tests.
Result: Reduced executive hiring failures by 67% and cut time-to-hire from 10 months to 6 weeks. Their current Operations Director, identified through assessments, has been in post successfully for 2+ years.
The most effective approach combines assessments with structured interviews. Use assessments to identify candidates with the right behavioural foundation, then use interviews to explore culture fit, motivation, and specific experience.
Time-sensitive advantage: With 67% of UK employers planning to recruit in 2024 but facing the tightest talent market in years, the organisations that can identify true leadership potential quickly will secure the best candidates while competitors are still scheduling interviews.
This isn't about replacing human judgement. It's about giving yourself better information to make smarter decisions when every hire matters.
The right tools for the job
Which assessments work best for managers and executives
Not all assessments are created equal. For management roles, you need tools that measure the specific competencies that predict leadership success:
Critical thinking and decision-making
What it measures: The ability to analyse complex information, identify patterns, and make sound decisions under pressure.
Why it matters for managers: Leaders face ambiguous situations daily. They need to synthesise information from multiple sources, consider various outcomes, and choose the best path forward.
Our solution: Concepts Critical Thinking goes beyond basic reasoning to measure how candidates handle complex qualitative information and reach meaningful conclusions.
Leadership personality traits
What it measures: Core personality dimensions that influence leadership style, including confidence, resilience, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Why it matters for managers: Technical skills get you in the door, but personality traits determine leadership success. 94% of recruiting professionals believe strong soft skills are more important for leadership promotions than years of experience.
Our solution: TPAQ-45 Complete Profile measures 45 personality traits across 16 workplace competencies, giving you an unparalleled view of leadership potential.
Situational judgement
What it measures: How candidates approach real workplace scenarios involving team management, conflict resolution, and strategic decisions.
Why it matters for managers: Leadership is about making good decisions in context. Situational judgement tests reveal how candidates think through management challenges.
Our solution: Perceptions Managerial presents candidates with realistic management scenarios and measures their judgement and decision-making approach.
Pro tip: Use multiple assessments
The most predictive approach combines cognitive ability (critical thinking) with personality assessment. This gives you insights into both how candidates think and how they're likely to behave as leaders.
Success Story: Professional Services Firm
Situation: Fast-growing consultancy needed to promote three new partners but struggled to identify who would succeed in leadership roles.
Approach: Used our TPAQ-45 personality assessment combined with critical thinking tests for all potential candidates.
Outcome: All three promoted partners are thriving 18 months later. One commented: "The assessment revealed leadership strengths I didn't even know I had, which gave me confidence to step up."
Remember: these assessments should complement, not replace, your interview process. Use them to identify candidates with leadership potential, then explore cultural fit and motivation in structured interviews.
Action points:
- Audit your last 3 senior hires: what leadership evidence did you have beyond interview performance?
- Calculate the ROI of implementing assessments vs the cost of your next failed hire
- Start with one assessment (we recommend critical thinking + personality) for your next management role
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Making it simple
How Test Partnership makes leadership hiring straightforward
We've designed our platform specifically for busy hiring teams who need reliable insights without complexity:
Choose your assessments, add candidate emails, and send invitations. No complex configuration needed. Your candidates complete assessments at their convenience, fitting around their busy schedules.
Results appear instantly as easy-to-read reports that highlight strengths, development areas, and interview questions. No psychology degree required to understand the insights.
Our team of business psychologists help you choose the right assessments and interpret results. You're not navigating this alone.
The result? You get objective insights into leadership potential before spending precious time on interviews. When you do interview, you're asking the right questions and focusing on what really matters.
Ready to see how it works? Our leadership assessment solutions are designed specifically for management and executive roles. See exactly how candidates think, lead, and make decisions.
Why Act Now?
Market Reality: With executive recruitment taking 8-12 months and 37% of UK employers facing "hard to fill" vacancies, every day you delay implementing better assessment methods is another day your competitors might secure the leadership talent you need.
Competitive Advantage: Early adopters of assessment-based hiring report 73% fewer leadership failures and 60% faster hiring decisions. In today's talent market, that's the difference between securing great leaders and losing them to faster-moving competitors.
Your next steps:
- This week: Book a 15-minute call with our team to discuss your specific leadership hiring challenges
- Within 2 weeks: Review sample assessment reports for roles similar to yours
- Next hire: Implement our recommended assessment combination before scheduling any interviews
Don't let another failed leadership hire cost your organisation £500,000+ and 18 months of missed opportunities. The solution exists, and it's easier to implement than you think.
