Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: Which Should You Focus on More When Hiring?

All employees possess two sets of skills, hard skills and soft skills. But what exactly is the difference between these skills? And which should employers put the most focus on?

Hard skills are based on technical knowledge, for example, knowing how to use a type of software. Conversely, soft skills are related to personal attributes, such as being a good leader or communicator.

In this article, we will look more at each of these skills and fully explain the difference between hard skills vs. soft skills. We’ll also cover which of these skills employers should put the most focus on when hiring and which candidates should highlight in their applications and interviews.  

What Are Hard and Soft Skills? 

The main differences between hard skills vs. soft skills is how they are gained and how they are used. Soft skills are more universal, employees need them to succeed in any job and any position. Hard skills are directly related to the employee’s position and the tasks you handle. 

What are Hard Skills?

Hard skills are specific technical knowledge that has been learned through training of some kind. This training includes schooling and hands-on experience.

Hard Skills are tangible qualities that are needed to be able to be successful in the position. If an employee has great soft skills, but few to none of the hard skills needed for a role, they won’t be able to succeed. 

There isn’t much of a scale to measure hard skills, you either have the skill or you don’t. The amount of experience with a skill may vary though, with those with more experience using your desired skills generally being better candidates. 

Hard skills refer to technical knowledge that gets picked up at work or via schooling.

How Can I Improve My Hard Skills? 

As an employee, there are many ways to improve your hard skills. These methods include:

• Gaining an additional degree

• Taking courses or classes

• Volunteering somewhere that allows you to practice the hard skills you wish to improve 

• Finding a mentor

• On-the-job learning and growth 

What are Soft Skills?

Soft Skills are interpersonal abilities. These are intangible qualities needed to succeed on a team and in an organization. Soft skills are more challenging to measure compared to hard skills, especially when determining how strong a candidate is with each skill. 

Soft skills include: 

• Problem-solving 

• Strong communication abilities

• Teamwork

• Leadership 

• Time Management 

• Creativity

• Organizational skills  
  

Candidates with high-level soft skills are good employees and co-workers! If an employee lacks soft skills like communication or time management, they may not be able to contribute their best to your organization. To ensure the best fit into your team, hiring for soft skills is critical. 

Soft skills are also often a good indicator of an employee's ability to grow within a company. Candidates that appear to have strong soft skills give the impression that they know what they need to do to succeed in the workplace. They have the personal skills to put their technical knowledge to work in the most successful and productive way. 

Analyzing the soft skills of each candidate can be challenging though. Some ways to determine how strong their soft skills actually are include talking to third parties, like references, and using interviews.

How Can I Improve My Soft Skills? 

While you’ll naturally have some soft skills, you can work on areas to improve. For example, you can easily improve your time management skills by planning in advance or you can improve communication by challenging yourself to speak up more at meetings and the like.

The primary differences between hard skills vs. soft skills are how they’re gained and applied.

Hard vs. Soft Skills: Which Should You Focus on More? 

Having now understood the differences in hard skills vs. soft skills, which of the two sets of skills should hiring teams focus on most when recruiting? And which should you highlight more on your application as a candidate?   

An Overemphasis on Hard Skills 

Employers have previously been focusing a lot more on the hard skills of candidates at the expense of soft skills. Many recruiters simply checked off a list of technical knowledge that employees must have to do the job. Soft skills have then been under-assessed. 

But companies are starting to see the flaws with that model and are giving more of an equal weight to soft and hard skills, which is best practice. Interestingly, many recruiters are now noticing skill gaps when it comes to soft skills. In part as a result of the previous over emphasis on hard skills. Employees have long focused on improving their hard skills as much as possible, through higher education, courses, work experience, and the like. 

Yet improving soft skills has not been as highly valued. This has somewhat led to employees that can technically do a lot but miss the mark when it comes to showing creativity, leadership, taking initiative, etc. 

Employers have previously put an emphasis on hard skills, leading to soft skill gaps.

What Employers Should Focus On: Soft Skills versus Hard Skills 

Recruiters must evaluate both sets of skills to ensure they find high-quality hires that are well-rounded. These types of employees are the most likely to be successful members of your team. 

The amount of weight you put on hard skills vs. soft skills will vary based on the role and level of the employee. For example, when hiring entry-level employees with little experience, you may want to focus more on soft skills. Can they prove that they can work in a team, manage their time, solve problems should they arise, etc. 

As the amount of experience needed for the role increases, you should put more and more emphasis on hard skills. However, you may see the amount of focus on soft skills increase too. To be in a management position, for example, the employee will need to know they have a strong working knowledge of the industry and department they’re in (hard skills.) However, this employee will also need to show they have good leadership and communication skills to thrive as a manager (soft skills.) 

The addition of references confirming soft skills can help make up for missing hard skills too. If former employers note that the candidate is a hard worker that’s open-minded and always willing to learn, this suggests they will pick up missing hard skills quickly when you train them. 

Some employers may put more emphasis on the soft skills the candidate has, as those skills are more difficult to teach. If a candidate hasn’t used a certain type of software before, it shouldn’t be too challenging to teach them how to use it. Yet if references let you know the candidate is lacking in a soft skill (bad time management, can’t work in a team, etc.) this is more of a red flag, and it will be challenging to teach the lacking skill on the job.

How to Assess Hard vs. Soft Skills  

The first place to start assessing which hard skills and soft skills a candidate has is by looking at their application. Their resume should highlight the technical knowledge they possess, and ideally, start showing which soft skills they have. A cover letter can help highlight these skills more and how they apply them in the workplace. 

Having narrowed down the number of candidates, you can then use interviews to assess both types of skills further. To analyze soft skills well, use the STAR (situation, task, action, result) technique when asking questions. Plus, you should ask about skills, especially soft skills, when talking to references. In addition, you can use skill assessments to test both types of skills, especially hard skills. 

Employers must assess hard skills and soft skills equally to find the best candidates.

What Employees Should Focus On: Soft Skills versus Hard Skills 

As a candidate, you need to ensure that you have both types of skills. You also need to be able to back them up with examples both in your application materials and in interviews. You must also have references that will confirm you possess the skills. 

Including Soft and Hard Skills on Your Resume 

The first place to showcase your skills to a potential employer is on your resume. To do this, you can add a “Skills” section. This section can highlight both soft skills and hard skills. 

If you have a range of technical skills, you can split them into categories with subheadings. For example, a digital copywriter may have “writing skills,” “editing skills,” “SEO skills” and “social media skills.” You can also include soft skills in a short bio section at the start of your resume. 

Also, highlight skills throughout your ‘Work Experience” section. Of course, you’ll mention hard skills. But try to combine soft skills too. For example, saying you managed a process shows leadership skills. Saying you collaborated to complete a task suggests that you have good teamwork skills. 

In Summary 

You should now have a solid understanding relating to hard skills vs. soft skills. As an employer, you need to assess both sets of skills and understand which specific skills the candidate will need to succeed in the position they’re applying for. 

As a candidate, you also need to showcase both sets of skills. You must prove that not only do you have the technical knowledge to succeed but also the personal skills, like being a good team player, that are needed to thrive in an organization. 

If you need help choosing the perfect candidate or would like some advice on the best way to highlight your skills to potential employers, reach out to the team at Lynne Palmer!