Talent managers and leadership teams are at a crossroads as technology improves too fast, and in today’s economy, we either go fast or go home. Winning is about shortening the training time required and having the people with the potential to quickly gain the right skill set on board, or else we will flounder under the weight of long learning curves. Here are 3 steps to define the right skill set:

1. Analyze the open vacancy

Hiring the right people starts with job analysis. Collect information about the business objectives, required tasks, deliverables, salary needs, and work environment to allow yourself to better understand the vacancy. Think of the skills your company might need in the coming years, you can also survey the current employees to know the skills missing at a certain point. All that information is essential to create a job description for the new employee, and identify the skills he/she needs to have to get the job done.

2. Pay attention to the needed soft skills

According to the Youth Global Employability Survey, hard skills such as marketing and sales, as well as having a suitable degree, were considered important, but it was soft skills that were considered even more important. As more companies chase the best talent, soft skills will continue to grow in importance. While hard skills are teachable, it is the hard-to-quantify soft skills that often mean the difference between success and failure in a hire. Communication skills, innovation, the willingness to learn, and other soft skills should be at the top of your list.

3. Redesign your interview

Select your interview questions to get the best information to better understand the potential employee and make your hiring decisions. Those decks of resumes you have can tell you what hard skills the candidates have, but when it comes to soft skills, they claim to have them all. Asking situational and behavioural questions is a good approach to find the right match. These questions are open-ended, allowing candidates to talk about their personal experiences in their own words. They also encourage follow up questions so you can analyze the candidates’ responses.

If you follow the steps above, you can ensure your company will be in better tune with the actual hiring needs, in the time where you actually need them. And to make things easier, you can look for a talent pool that offers skilled candidates to fit your hiring needs. If you are thinking of that, make sure to have a look here.