Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills are important to assess during the pre-employment stages of hiring. Use this test to assess a candidate's interpersonal abilities.

  • What is an interpersonal skills test?

    An interpersonal skills test is an assessment of the way a candidate interacts and communicates with others. This type of test typically covers communication, empathy, integrity, and emotional intelligence.

    The interpersonal skills test assesses the way applicants use their social skills for effective teamwork and leadership, which makes it ideal for management roles and jobs that involve interacting with customers, clients, and members of the public.

    The interpersonal skills test is structured around fictional yet realistic workplace scenarios, asking the candidate to decide on the best course of action to take to solve an issue or deal with a problem from the multiple-choice options available.

Jump to a section on this page:

  1. What is an interpersonal skills test?
  2. Why is an interpersonal skills test so important when hiring?
  3. How to assess interpersonal skills using our test
  4. Interpersonal Skills FAQs

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Our pre-employment tests let you drill down to the best candidates at the click of a button.

  • Find those candidates who will excel in the role.

    Select the assessments that match the skills or behaviours for the position. You can test for software or coding competency, soft skills like teamwork, or personality traits, to be sure those who pass have high potential.

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    No more laborious sifting of resumes or cover letters. Pick your ideal assessment mix, invite your applicants to take them, see the results in your dashboard. Get to the interview stage fast.

  • Eliminate bias.

    All your candidates take the assessments on a level playing field. Only their results determine whether they get shortlisted.

  • Why is an interpersonal skills test so important when hiring?

    Having good interpersonal skills (also known as 'people skills') makes for good managers and supervisors, but also helps employees who need to speak confidently and effectively with other staff members, the public, and customers.

    Interpersonal skills are part of a range of abilities commonly known as soft skills, and it can be difficult to assess a candidate on their soft skills through traditional application processes like reading a resume or even in an interview - and that is where a standardised assessment can make a difference.

    For recruiters, good interpersonal skills can create a better working environment, boost team morale, and ensure that employees, managers and customers can work more effectively together.

    Empathy and emotional intelligence demonstrated by potential employees can mean that once they are hired they are able to communicate effectively with a range of different people as the role requires. These skills combined with good teamwork and emotional intelligence should demonstrate a high level of competence for a role that requires people skills.

    The interpersonal skills test asks every candidate the same questions with the same possible answers, and the results are available immediately for the recruiter. These results provide quantifiable and measurable data points that indicate exactly how good each candidate is with interpersonal communication. This data can then be used to inform the decision on which candidates to take further into the interview process.

    Recruiters will find interpersonal tests useful in the hiring process for:

    • Managers
    • Supervisors
    • Members of large teams
    • Customer Service Agents

    The interpersonal skills test is simple to administer to many candidates, and is straightforward for the applicant to take in their own time, providing immediate results and useful data.

More Soft Skills Tests

Sample Interpersonal Skills question

You have recently started a new job and your team leader seems to be constantly picking out simple faults in your work. They have never provided any feedback or help unless you have committed a mistake. You are interested in your job, but the team leader’s behaviour is making things difficult for you. What do you do next?

  • Contact the human resources department and file a report with evidence against the team leader.

  • Confront the team leader and ensure that the situation is not repeated thereafter.

  • Contact the human resources department and enquire whether you could get a transfer to another department.

  • Have an open discussion with the team leader and find out ways to work collaboratively.

How to assess interpersonal skills using our test

Our interpersonal skills test asks a variety of questions that vary in difficulty level. Candidates who demonstrate strong interpersonal skills should be able to answer most of the questions correctly.

The interpersonal skills test provides valuable insight into a candidate's interpersonal abilities. The test is structured using multiple-choice questions: a familiar format for most test-takers, that allows for instant and objective scoring.

As well as the correct answer, there are typically 2–4 distractors, representing common misconceptions and mistakes. This helps make the test more challenging, so a candidate's ability can be measured more accurately.

Test scores are provided to the user and can be compared to other test-takers in your talent pool, to see how they perform relative to each other.

Each test has been thoroughly reviewed to ensure accuracy and validity in line with industry standards. It has been written, examined and edited by I/O psychologists and psychometric professionals. It has also been reviewed by a diverse sample of job seekers to check for any issues including sensitivity, face validity, fairness and accessibility.

This test is continually monitored so our team can optimize performance and regularly assess fairness issues.

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Picked provides evidence-based recommendations for tests to use for over 750 jobs. Our recommendation engine leverages data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA).

  • Assessments

    A full suite of assessments

    Our platform comes with 12 tests across both foundation and advanced levels so they’re suitable for everyone. Including aptitude, behavioural and personality tests, you’ll have a full range of tests to help you find the candidates you’re seeking.

  • Analytics

    An array of candidate metrics

    For each of your candidates, you’ll be given a comprehensive report. Included will be all the metrics you need to build a detailed picture of each candidate and ensure you’re making the right hiring decisions.

“The platform is so simple to use. I had used competitor providers for over six years and will never go back. Fast, efficient and friendly!”
Greg Chambers, HR Business Partner, Littlefish Ltd
Greg Chambers, HR Business Partner, Littlefish Ltd

Interpersonal Skills FAQs

How can you test interpersonal skills?

One of the most effective ways to test for interpersonal skills is to use scenarios that require good judgement to answer. You can also test interpersonal skills using personality trait assessments and self-assessing questionnaires.

Are interpersonal skills tests difficult?

For the candidate, an interpersonal skills test can be difficult because they have to think of the best way to solve the work-based issue presented in the scenario. The content of the assessment itself is not difficult, but the nature of the test environment can be challenging.

Who should be given an interpersonal skills test?

Recruiters should use the interpersonal test when hiring managers, leaders, and supervisors, but it is also useful for a range of roles across different industries where effective communication and teamwork are important, like in customer service or in large multi-functional offices.

When should you use an interpersonal skills test?

You can use an interpersonal skills test at any stage in the recruitment process, but most use it after the initial paper sift because it helps narrow down a large candidate pool. Interpersonal skills tests can also be used to assess employees for promotion to leadership roles.

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Laurence Fishman, Partner, NLPCA
Laurence Fishman, Partner, NLPCA

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