Soft skills valued over traditional methods in AI-era hiring trends

Recent data reveals that employers are placing more value than ever on soft skills in an automated era of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The global survey, "The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2023" by pre-employment testing company TestGorilla, shows that employers are increasingly using AI tools to screen candidates based on these attributes rather than traditional methods.

Commenting on these evolving dynamics in the labour market, TestGorilla CEO Wouter Durville said, "Employers now value soft skills more than ever, as these are qualities that cannot be easily replicated by technology."

According to the report which surveyed employers and employees across the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Latin America, 91% of employers consider soft skills more important now than five years ago, up from 74% in 2022.

These skills include communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking. "In the era of Artificial Intelligence, employers must adapt to hiring for these skills if they are to remain competitive," observed Durville.

The development sees a sharp contrast with traditional recruitment processes where candidates submit resumes followed by an interview. The survey reveals that 43% of employers who still rely on resumes experience difficulty in ranking candidates and deal with unconscious bias problems.

Moreover, the conventional method reportedly fails in accurately gauging a candidate's capacity to perform the job.

Skills-based hiring can test both 'hard' and 'soft' skills accurately, allowing organisations to recruit and onboard suited employees effectively. With this method, employers reported a reduction in mis-hires (88%), a reduction of recruitment cost (74%), decreased time to hire (82%), and improved levels of staff retention (89%).

The CEO commented further on these figures: "This is a seismic shift considering resume screening has been almost universally relied on for decades. Skills-based hiring has been around for a fraction of the time that resumes have. We are seeing a tipping point which could mark the death of the resume as a way to get work in the next two to three years."

The shift to skills-based hiring is also supporting workplace diversity, with 84% of firms experiencing a positive impact after adopting this method.

Durville added: "This approach to recruitment is levelling the playing field when it comes to diversity – skills-based hiring by definition does not introduce bias. With increasing remote work opportunities, skills-based hiring is attracting talent from all over the world into roles that would otherwise have been closed off using the old resume selection route."

In a recent announcement by TestGorilla on resumes and CVs, employers who use skills-based hiring reduced the number of mis-hires by 88%, total time spent searching for the perfect candidate by 82%, and hiring-related costs by 74%.

Overall, 92% of the employers surveyed reported that skills-based hiring is more effective at identifying talented candidates than a traditional CV. Meanwhile, over 80% said it's more predictive of on-job success and leads to new hires staying longer in their roles.