Human skills are more important than ever. That’s partly because they’re increasingly recognized for their value. Organizations today know that high performers usually have these so-called soft skills in abundance.
As a result, recruiters and managers no longer see human skills as a nice-to-have. Instead, these “power skills” are viewed as absolutely necessary, especially since they will not be replaceable by AI in the new digital economy.
Also known as “social skills” and “transverse skills”, human skills require discipline and experience to master, and should be measured in every performance assessment.
Join us as we explain which human skills you should be measuring (and how) in your continuous performance management strategy.
Key Takeaways
- Human skills, also known as soft skills, are more important than ever because AI and robots cannot replicate or replace them. In fact, human skills are no longer considered nice to have; they are considered necessary.
- Strong performance requires strong human skills, since they impact team morale, interactions, and trust.
- Soft skills can be harder to measure than hard skills as they are qualitative. This means that performance assessments must be adjusted accordingly. Today, most managers use a continuous performance management approach, which involves giving and receiving feedback on a regular basis.
- A tool called the Human Skills Matrix, created by researchers at MIT, sorts vital human skills into four categories: thinking, interacting, managing ourselves, and leading. This can help HR professionals decide which skills to measure.
- Choosing which human skills to measure involves identifying which skills are required for good performance for each role. Some skills may be basic to all roles, and others may be high-impact for each specific role (such as negotiation for a project manager).
- HR professionals widely use 360 degree feedback when measuring human skills. To be effective, these reviews must focus on observable behaviors, balance rating scales and contextual evidence to get a clear understanding of the full picture, and be structured with questions grouped according to each specific human skill you are measuring (in a 9-box grid, for example).
- Managers can either gather yearly 360 feedback or hold mini-360° reviews that focus specifically on human skills at different intervals during the yearly cycle.
- Measuring human skills continuously is important because how people work is just as important as what they produce when it comes to building a healthy workplace culture.
- Primalogik’s software suite supports human skills management via integrated, adaptable modules for all essential performance review functions. Use our award-winning 360 degree review tool, do quick check-ins, gather regular feedback with surveys, or schedule annual reviews all from the same platform.
Table of Contents
1. Defining Human Skills Using the Human Skills Matrix
2. Why Human Skills Matter for Performance
3. Performance Management Methods for Measuring Human Skills
4. Why Continuous Measurement Matters for Human Skills
5. 3 Ways to Measure Human Skills Using 360 Reviews
6. Choosing Which Human Skills to Measure
7. Integrating Human Skills into Continuous Performance Management
8. Primalogik’s Software Suite Supports Human Skills Management
Defining Human Skills Using the Human Skills Matrix
What are human skills, exactly? A division of MIT has created a tool called the human skills matrix that helps isolate and define which skills really are soft skills. Researchers boiled down the top 24 skills that cannot be automated and therefore will remain valuable as technology advances, and sorted them into four categories. These categories are:
- Thinking
- Interacting
- Managing ourselves
- Leading
Within each category, the specific skills you identify may vary according to an employee’s role.
Why Human Skills Matter for Performance
Human skills are directly linked to strong performance.
For example, managers need to get results, but also to keep up team morale and encourage employees to perform over the long term. This requires human skills, not just drive and ambition. Employee motivation cannot be based on fear or stress, or it will ultimately crumble.
Also, no matter how advanced technology becomes, humans value interactions with other humans. And as soon as you have 2 or more people in a room or meeting, human skills set the groundwork for healthy, positive interactions.
Communication on virtual and hybrid teams tends to require more effort. We can’t always see body language in meetings, and today’s real-time feedback methods often rely on written communication. Forming relationships takes more intentional effort, making human skills key to forging strong bonds and mutual understanding.
Last but not least, human skills like mentorship, delegation and interpersonal skills build trust. These skills are absolutely necessary in managers and leaders, making it non-negotiable to measure human skills when trying to identify high potential employees.
Performance Management Methods for Measuring Human Skills
Soft skills are often harder to measure than an employee’s ability to complete a task. Because human skills are qualitative, they must be measured using approaches that encourage complex feedback.
Popular choices include:
- 360 degree feedback: Gathering input from peers, subordinates, and supervisors to get a holistic view of interpersonal behavior.
- Behavioral Anchored Rating Scales (BARS): Using specific examples of good and poor behavior to turn subjective traits into objective scores.
- Self-evaluations: Encouraging employees to reflect on their own communication style and emotional triggers.
Two Quick Ways to Measure Human Skills in a Continuous Performance Management Context
If the above methods seem a bit too difficult or time-consuming, try combining the following instead:
- Hold frequent mini-360 reviews that focus on one or two specific human skills. For example, in Q2, everyone on the team provides feedback specifically on collaboration. This keeps the data fresh and the developmental goals manageable.
- Implement behavior-based check-ins. Instead of just asking about goals, ask questions like: Tell me about a time this week you had to adapt to a change in project scope. How did you handle the frustration? Note these instances in your manager log to identify patterns of growth in adaptability over six months.
Why Continuous Measurement Matters for Human Skills
When you measure human skills continuously, you remove the recency bias that often plagues annual reviews. More importantly, it signals to your workforce that how they work is just as important as what they produce.
By integrating these metrics into your regular rhythm, you move beyond mere management and begin building a high-trust culture where durable skills are the primary engine of growth.
3 Ways to Measure Human Skills Using 360 Reviews
360-degree reviews provide a unique opportunity to turn qualitative observations into actionable data. Because these skills are experienced by others, the collective perspective of peers, direct reports, and managers can be used to create a fairly reliable map of an individual’s human skills, and if necessary, create a development plan to address any need for change.
We recommend incorporating the following three elements when creating your 360 degree reviews, so that you can evaluate human skills effectively:
1. Focus on Observable Behaviors
The key to measuring human skills is to translate them into specific, visible actions. For example, instead of asking about emotional intelligence, ask: How effectively does this person remain solution-oriented during high-pressure deadlines?
By framing questions around behaviors, you remove the guesswork for the reviewer and provide the employee with a clear behavioral blueprint to follow.
2. Balance the Rating Scale with Contextual Evidence
Using both rating scales and first-hand accounts of behaviors will balance your data and give you a complete picture of how an employee’s human skills are evolving. You’ll have to choose the right performance metrics to measure.
When possible, use a Likert scale (e.g., 1–5). This allows you to track growth over time and compare self-perceptions against the group average.
You should also follow up rating questions with an open-ended prompt. For example: Can you provide a specific example of when this person demonstrated this skill in the last quarter?
This way, you can gather both qualitative and quantitative evidence about each skill.
3. Group Your Questions by Skill
To make the results digestible, group your questions into core human-skill clusters. You can use the human skill matrix as a basis, or group your questions according to another set of categories, such as whether the skills they address impact relationships, ability to adapt, or ability to communicate.
You can apply this within a 9-box grid to get a clearer picture.
By structuring your 360 reviews this way, human skills stop being a mystery and start being a measurable part of your professional development strategy.
Choosing Which Human Skills to Measure
Selecting the right human skills to measure involves identifying which skills are truly vital to good performance for each role.
For example:
- Client-Facing Roles: Empathy, listening, communication
- Internal Support Roles: Ability to explain, resilience, patience
- Leadership Roles: Ability to tailor messages to different audiences, ability to simplify complex concepts
Beyond role-specific skills, you should also look at friction points within projects or cycles.
For example, if a team has high technical proficiency but misses project deadlines, you will need to measure (and then cultivate) the ability to adapt and the ability to communicate become a priority. Your goal here is to measure skills that directly solve existing operational bottlenecks.
Depending on the particular project, company, activity or goals, friction points will vary. The company’s lifecycle will impact your choice also. Are you in a startup stage? Are you an established organization? Are you going through any major changes? Different human skills will be necessary to thrive at different stages.
Remember to include a clear understanding of the future need for each skill in your evaluation. Ask: Which of these skills cannot be easily automated or replaced by AI in the next three years?
Baseline Vs. High-Impact Human Skills
A final distinction to make lies between basic and high-impact human skills.
Basic skills are skills everyone must have to function, such as professionalism. These often don’t need deep measurement unless they are missing.
High-impact skills separate average performers from top-tier contributors in a specific role. For a project manager, this might be negotiation; for a developer, it might be the ability to explain code to non-technical stakeholders.
Integrating Human Skills into Continuous Performance Management
In an era where technical skills have an increasingly short half-life, the durable nature of human skills has become the bedrock of organizational resilience. Moving away from rigid, once-a-year appraisals toward a continuous performance management strategy allows managers to capture these skills in real-time, providing a more accurate reflection of an employee’s true contribution.
Primalogik’s Software Suite Supports Human Skills Management
Human skills are the vital interpersonal, emotional, and cognitive abilities that colour every interaction and often mean the difference between average and high-performing employees.
At Primalogik, we are committed to providing top-notch performance management software that allows managers, HR leaders and HR consultants to measure what matters most. As technology advances and the efficiency of AI becomes harder to match, humans need to be valued and encouraged for their unique soft skills.
You can use our award-winning 360 degree feedback software to design, schedule, run and gain insights from performance assessments that look at more than just completed tasks. Our employee survey and check-in tools also make it easy to integrate human skills assessments into continuous performance management processes. Try a free demo today!