As employers continue to refine their hiring processes for frontline roles, a new study from HiringBranch, a Montreal-based assessment company, suggests that a common practice—scoring soft skills in isolation—may actually undermine the ability to predict job performance. The findings, discussed in the latest episode of the podcast You Should Know, highlight the importance of evaluating candidates in a more integrated way, particularly for roles that rely heavily on customer interaction.
Assaf Bar-Moshe, Chief of Research and Development Officer at HiringBranch, explained that their research shows single-skill scoring—such as measuring empathy independently—produces only moderate correlations with human annotators. In contrast, a combined proprietary model that integrates multiple skills yields much stronger correlations. “If a candidate can express empathy, but is unable to solve the issue correctly or to comprehend the issue correctly or to reassure the customer, then this empathy is nice, but it's actually useless,” Bar-Moshe said on the podcast.
The study focuses on four pillars of customer service: acknowledgment, reassurance through positive language, empathy, and active listening. HiringBranch uses an open-ended, voice-and-writing assessment design that translates job descriptions into conversation flows and scenario-based assessments calibrated per client, region, and role. This approach moves away from personality-based metrics and instead employs a “sociopragmatic analysis of the words that the candidate is actually saying,” Bar-Moshe noted.
The implications for employers are significant. In today’s competitive labor market, making the right hiring decisions for customer-facing positions is crucial. The research suggests that a more holistic evaluation, which considers how skills interact in real-world scenarios, can improve the likelihood of selecting candidates who will succeed on the job. For example, a candidate might excel in showing empathy but fail to provide reassurance or solve problems effectively, leading to poor customer outcomes.
Bar-Moshe also highlighted that calibrations differ by client, industry, and geography. Regional variations across markets like Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal shape different scoring weights for the same role, underscoring the need for tailored assessments rather than one-size-fits-all tests. Additionally, the company is developing a self-serve capability that would allow hiring managers to build assessments from a library of conversation flows and skills, reducing reliance on weak or generic job descriptions.
William Tincup, co-host of You Should Know, shared a real-world example of a retail confrontation over mispriced broccoli that turned on diplomacy rather than policy, illustrating the complex skills required in frontline interactions. The podcast, part of the WRKdefined Podcast Network based in Arlington, Texas, reaches more than 3.9 million verified listeners each month and covers pivotal leadership challenges and workforce dynamics.
The full study will be available under the AI research tab on the HiringBranch website. As organizations continue to adapt their hiring practices, this research offers a data-driven argument for rethinking how soft skills are assessed. By moving away from isolated scores and toward integrated, conversation-based evaluations, employers may be better equipped to identify candidates who can thrive in the fast-paced, customer-centric environments of frontline work.
