Is it even possible to measure soft skills with technology?

Yes. Using advanced data modelling and a proprietary dataset built specifically for soft skills measurement, HiringBranch has made it possible to assess soft skills at scale, with results validated against real on-the-job performance outcomes.

What soft skills should I be measuring?

It depends on the roles you're hiring for. Effective skills taxonomies need to be customized to each organization. If you don't already have a defined skills list per role, an assessment can show you what soft skills your top performers actually share — and those can be built into a custom HiringBranch assessment. For common frontline roles, HiringBranch also has data on the soft skills that predict performance most reliably. Check our latest performance report for the top skills needed for customer service and sales: https://www.hiringbranch.com/resources/reports/skill-based-hiring

How is measuring soft skills different from a psychometric or behavioural test?

Psychometric tests measure cognitive ability and personality traits, but they have real limitations. They're rarely job-specific, which means no single test reliably predicts post-hire performance on its own. Using them well requires specialist training, and they're prone to bias from cultural differences, language barriers, and unfamiliarity with testing formats. AI-powered soft skills assessments work differently. Candidates respond to real-world, role-specific scenarios, and the results are scored against validated performance data. That's how hiring teams can identify, with 98% accuracy, which candidates will perform well before a single interview.

What happens if candidates self-report their own skills?

Self-reported skills are common, but they're unvalidated, and that's the problem. What a candidate believes about their own abilities may not match how they actually perform on the job. Building a workforce on validated skills, not self-assessments, is how you reduce hiring risk and improve quality of hire.

Can soft skills be tied to on-the-job performance?

Yes, and they should be. HiringBranch ties every assessment directly to the KPIs that matter to your organization, so the skills you're screening for are the same ones driving performance after hire.

Can I connect soft skill data to my ATS?

Yes. HiringBranch integrates with over 150 HR and ATS systems, including native integrations with Workday, Team Tailor, and more.

RESPONSIBLE AI

Évaluer plus de 50 compétences transversales au cours d'un parcours candidat unique

HiringBranch mesure les compétences relationnelles et de communication dont l'efficacité est prouvée dans les moments clés des meilleurs talents.

See how it works

Accurate scoring

Bias audited

Certified

Designed to be explainable, unlike an LLM.

“Strong in patient care” or “weak in critical thinking” is not good enough to explain why a candidate was hired or not.

HiringBranch’s proprietary taxonomy and automatic scoring maps candidate behaviour to specific actions observed during their assessment. This allows the AI to produce job-relevant feedback that can be easily explained.

EXPLAINABILITY SUMMARY

The candidate acknowledged and paraphrased well the customers' issues and offered suitable resolutions. Spoken fluency stayed steady with minor hesitation under pressure. Written follow-up was clear and correctly punctuated.

Observed skills

Paraphrase

Acknowledge

Spoken fluency

Positioning an offer

Writing

Transparent

Know whether a candidate performed successfully and what contributed to that performance.

Structured

Performance is shared in score reports, comparisons, and in plain-language for decision-making and defensibility.

Deterministic

Scoring yields the same result for the same candidate on a test repeat. No silent drift between runs.

EXPLAINABLE SCORING

Score breakdowns

Understand nuance between candidates with controlled, interpretable scoring.

Overall scores & percentiles

Overall scores are comprised of role-required skills and language proficiencies. Know where candidates sit against all candidates globally.

Competency comparisons

Competencies are a weighted collection of role-required skills and the degree to which they’re demonstrated.

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Language scores

Language scores are broken into speaking, writing, listening and reading demonstrating comprehension and communication fluency.

Observed skills

Observed skills quantifies how often a skill was demonstrated compared to what the role requires.

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How explainability works

Scoring is controlled and interpretable end-to-end, from the moment a candidate speaks to the moment a recruiter opens the report.

Scored in real time

Scoring happens during the assessment, against the role’s required sub-skills.

Explained instantly

Explainability summaries are generated the moment the assessment ends.

Stored for defensibility

Reports sit inside rich candidate profiles for review, comparison and retention.

From our science team to you

Report

Unbiased Hiring Decisions with HiringBranch Soft Skills AI

Foire aux questions

Est-il seulement possible de mesurer les compétences relationnelles à l'aide de la technologie ?

Oui. Grâce à une modélisation avancée des données et à un ensemble de données exclusif spécialement conçu pour l'évaluation des compétences relationnelles, HiringBranch permet d'évaluer ces compétences à grande échelle, les résultats étant validés par rapport aux performances réelles observées en situation de travail.

How does HiringBranch ‘define a global standard’ for scoring with percentiles?

Cela dépend des postes à pourvoir. Pour être efficaces, les taxonomies de compétences doivent être adaptées à chaque organisation. Si vous ne disposez pas encore d’une liste de compétences définie pour chaque poste, une évaluation peut vous permettre d’identifier les compétences relationnelles que partagent réellement vos meilleurs collaborateurs — et celles-ci peuvent être intégrées à une évaluation HiringBranch sur mesure. Pour les postes courants en contact avec la clientèle, HiringBranch dispose également de données sur les compétences relationnelles qui prédisent la performance de la manière la plus fiable. Consultez notre dernier rapport de performance pour découvrir les compétences clés requises dans le service client et la vente : https://www.hiringbranch.com/resources/reports/skill-based-hiring

Is the global percentile for all assessments or individual assessments?

Les tests psychométriques mesurent les capacités cognitives et les traits de personnalité, mais ils présentent de réelles limites. Ils sont rarement adaptés à un poste spécifique, ce qui signifie qu’aucun test ne permet à lui seul de prédire de manière fiable les performances après l’embauche. Leur bonne utilisation nécessite une formation spécialisée, et ils sont sujets à des biais liés aux différences culturelles, aux barrières linguistiques et à la méconnaissance des formats de test.

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Les évaluations des compétences relationnelles basées sur l’IA fonctionnent différemment. Les candidats réagissent à des scénarios concrets et spécifiques au poste, et les résultats sont notés par rapport à des données de performance validées. C’est ainsi que les équipes de recrutement peuvent identifier, avec une précision de 98 %, quels candidats seront performants avant même de passer un seul entretien.

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What does "explainable AI scoring" mean in hiring?

Les compétences déclarées par les candidats eux-mêmes sont courantes, mais elles ne sont pas validées, et c'est là que réside le problème. La perception qu'un candidat a de ses propres capacités peut ne pas correspondre à ses performances réelles au travail. C'est en constituant une équipe sur la base de compétences validées, et non d'auto-évaluations, que l'on réduit les risques liés au recrutement et que l'on améliore la qualité des embauches.

Do candidates get explanations on their scores?

Oui, et c'est tout à fait normal. HiringBranch relie chaque évaluation directement aux indicateurs clés de performance (KPI) qui comptent pour votre entreprise ; ainsi, les compétences que vous évaluez sont précisément celles qui déterminent les performances après l'embauche.

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How is HiringBranch's explainable scoring different from AI tools that use an LLM to judge candidates and then explain the result?

Oui. HiringBranch s'intègre à plus de 150 systèmes RH et ATS, notamment grâce à des intégrations natives avec Workday, Team Tailor et bien d'autres encore.

Does explainable scoring replace a recruiter's judgement?

No, it gives recruiters better information to use their judgement with. Explainability summaries turn a raw score into a plain-language report recruiters can review, compare across candidates, and retain for later, so hiring teams spend their time interviewing proven top candidates instead of guessing at what an AI score actually means.

Every hiring decision depends on accurate assessments

Get scores you can count on. Book a demo to see explainable scoring in action.

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