About the Assessment

Author: John J. Liptak, EdD
© 2021

Employers today want employees with the necessary job-related skills as well as what many refer to as soft skills. Soft skills are the personal attributes that enable individuals to interact effectively and harmoniously with others in the workplace.

The Soft Skills Inventory guides individuals in assessing their soft skills and provides them with strategies to enhance their workplace professionalism. Individuals taking this assessment will respond to 48 statements to evaluate their levels of soft skills in the following categories:

• Goals achievement
• Communication skills
• Professional presence
• Self-management
• Collaborative relationships
• Leadership and ethics

Individuals' results will indicate whether their scores are low, average, or high in each of the soft skills categories. Next, individuals will review activities designed to help them develop or improve effective soft skills. Finally, individuals will create a success plan that requires them to identify:

• skills they need to develop or improve
• goals for attaining those skills
• actions or strategies for achieving their goals

Key Features and Benefits

• Provides case managers, counselors, and educators with insights about their clients or students that can be used to facilitate conversations about service needs, future plans, goal setting, and more.
   
• Takes an average of 20–30 minutes to complete, giving individuals plenty of time to review and discuss their results with professionals or educators.
   
• Instructs individuals on how to complete and score the assessment step by step, allowing individuals to take the assessment at their own convenience.
   
• Works well with additional JIST resources, including the Soft Skills Solutions series of booklets and the Soft Skills in the Workplace video.
   
• Includes a free Administrator's Guide that provides a comprehensive overview of the assessment, techniques for administering it, and information about its reliability and validity.