Remote and hybrid: assessing soft skills without lowering the bar

The real problem: we lost our sensors

Before remote work, an ESN picked up huge amounts of information without trying. The manager saw a consultant hesitate in front of their screen. Sales bumped into a developer in the hallway and sensed the assignment was not going well. The CTO watched how a newcomer reacted to an unexpected spec change.

All of that happened without a process. It was passive observation, woven into the day-to-day.

In hybrid setups, those sensors are gone. A consultant struggling with a vague task looks exactly like, on Teams, a consultant deep in a hard problem. Same posture. Same silence. Same camera off.

The result: ESNs that have not adapted how they evaluate operate with about 50% less information on their consultants. And that costs, in poorly staffed assignments, negative client feedback, and silent turnover.

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The six soft skills that vanish at a distance

Not all behavioural skills are affected the same way. Some remain easy to observe on video. Others become almost invisible.

Skills at high risk of invisibility

Skills that stay readable

Conversely, some soft skills measure just as well remotely:

• Rigour and organisation: deliverables and deadlines speak for themselves
• Written communication: more visible than on-site, paradoxically
• Technical autonomy: measurable through outcomes without constant supervision
• Commitment to deadlines: binary, factual, no grey zone

The common mistake is to treat every soft skill the same. The real work is to spot which ones need specific documentation effort, and leave the rest alone.

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Capturing invisible soft skills: the field method

Forget generic grids

Competency matrices with 47 criteria are useless. A salesperson who has to fill a 30-minute grid per consultant will not do it, or will rush it. You need a system that fits in three questions per assignment.

The three questions that are enough

For each recent assignment, ask the consultant (and the client if possible):

• Question 1, The unexpected : “What unplanned event happened during the assignment, and what did you actually do?”
• Question 2, Communication : “Which non-technical stakeholder did you have to work with, and how did it go?”
• Question 3, The decision : “What decision did you make on your own, without waiting for sign-off, and what was the outcome?”

Why these three specifically

Each question targets a blind spot of remote work:

How to use the answers

A consultant who answers vaguely (“there was a spec change, I handled it”) reveals exactly what the client interview would have revealed, but three weeks later, after booking time with sales and the client-side manager.

A consultant who goes into detail (“in week 3 the PO changed the business logic on the billing module, I produced an impact assessment in 48h and rescheduled sprint planning with the Scrum Master”) gives sales a concrete selling narrative.

The gap between the two is not writing talent. It is proof that the consultant can articulate their work, a skill that becomes critical when nobody watches you work.

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What the client actually infers from your pack

The trust heuristic

An ESN buyer does not read a competency pack like a recruiter reads a CV. They look for signals of operational reliability. On-site, those signals came from the handshake, meeting behaviour, fluency in the pitch.

In hybrid, the pack is often the first and only filter before the interview. And the client’s heuristic is blunt:

• Vague pack → consultant who cannot articulate their work → operational risk
• Detailed but generic pack → ESN industrialising without knowing its people → lack of closeness
• Precise pack with concrete situations → reliable consultant, serious ESN → trust

Weak signals the client picks up without naming them

The client will never say “your pack lacked proof of ambiguity management”. They will say “we were not convinced” or “we preferred another profile”. But what drove the decision is often a detail:

• No context on assignments: three bullets per assignment with no description of the environment → the client wonders whether the consultant really understood where they worked
• No numbers: no volume, team size, or measurable scope → impossible to gauge level of responsibility
• Declarative soft skills: “strong communicator, team player, autonomous” as labels → zero credibility without a situation

The “so what?” test

For every line in your pack, apply the test: can the client answer “so what?”. If yes, the line adds nothing.

• “Participated in agile ceremonies” → So what?
• “Restructured daily stand-ups from 30 minutes to 12 minutes by flagging recurring topics to handle async” → The client sees the skill in action.

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Structuring the pack for hybrid context

The assignment format that works

For each assignment, a structured block with five elements:

• Context (2–3 lines), sector, team size, methodology, stack if relevant
• Scope (1–2 lines): what the consultant owned, with numbers
• Critical situation (3–4 lines), an unexpected event and how it was handled
• Collaboration (2–3 lines): who the consultant worked with and how
• Measurable outcome (1–2 lines), delivery, client satisfaction, KPI impacted

This format forces documentation of soft skills without ever saying “soft skills”. The client reads facts. They infer the skills.

Concrete example: before / after

Before (classic format):

Full-stack developer, 8-month assignment at a major banking client. Front and back feature development. Technologies: React, Node.js, PostgreSQL. Agile methodology.

After (hybrid-proof format):

Full-stack developer: Team of 6 in the Payments squad of a retail bank (€2bn in annual transaction volume on the scope). Owned the automatic reconciliation module (React/Node.js/PostgreSQL).

In month 3, unplanned migration to a new API from the payment partner. Produced impact analysis in 48h, coordinated with the architect and PO to reprioritise the backlog without slipping the release.

Regular stakeholders: business PO (non-technical), compliance team, cross-cutting architect. Weekly scoping meetings led autonomously from month 4 onward.

Outcome: module delivered two weeks early, automatic reconciliation rate rose from 74% to 96%.

The second format is longer, but every line carries a signal. The client does not need to be told the consultant handles the unexpected: they see it.

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Standardise without homogenise

The industrialisation trap

When an ESN decides to “normalise its packs”, the risk is profiles that all look the same. Same structure, same wording, same bullets. The senior who handled a production incident at 3 a.m. looks on paper like the junior who followed the onboarding tutorial.

Standardisation should apply to structure, not content.

What to normalise

• The assignment block format (the five elements above)
• The requirement to document at least one critical situation per assignment
• Systematic numbers (team size, volume, duration)
• Minimum detail on the client context

What not to normalise

• The vocabulary consultants use to describe their work
• Description length (an architect who led four teams has more to say than a dev on a feature team)
• Narrative style: some consultants are factual, others tell situations better

The effect on internal fairness

On-site, consultants comfortable in client interviews did better regardless of real skill. The pack was secondary. Charisma papered over gaps.

In hybrid, the pack regains power. An introverted but rigorous consultant who documents assignments well finally has the same chance as a charismatic consultant who skimps on prep, provided the pack structure allows that documentation.

That is where a tool like Betterfolio shifts the odds: by enforcing a pack structure that guides input, every consultant, talkative or quiet, gets the same frame to document skills factually.

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In-assignment follow-up: capturing soft skills in real time

Why the pack alone is not enough

The pack is a snapshot. But soft skills evolve: a consultant may handle ambiguity well early and crack under pressure in month 6. On-site, the line manager caught those shifts. In hybrid, you have to instrument them.

The three minimum touchpoints

For an assignment longer than three months, three collection moments matter:

• Month 1, Onboarding : how did the consultant absorb context? Did they ask the right questions? Did they find the right stakeholders without being handed names?
• Mid-assignment, The pivot : was there a change (scope, team, technology)? How was it absorbed?
• End of assignment, The debrief : what would the consultant do differently? That question surfaces self-assessment ability, almost impossible to observe remotely unless you ask explicitly.

Turning follow-up into pack content

Each touchpoint yields reusable material. The month-1 onboarding story becomes the assignment “context”. The mid-assignment pivot feeds the “critical situation”. The debrief feeds outcomes and shows consultant maturity.

This is not extra work. It is shifted work: instead of spending two hours writing a cold pack after the assignment, you bank three 20-minute conversations spread over time. The information is fresher, sharper, and the consultant feels supported: which, incidentally, is a meaningful retention lever.

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Classic mistakes to avoid

Mistake 1: Confusing evaluation with surveillance

Asking a consultant to document soft skills is not micromanagement. It is giving them the means to sell themselves. Framing matters: “we need to understand how you work to position you better” works. “We want to check you are really working” kills the relationship.

Mistake 2: Evaluating soft skills once

An annual review captures almost nothing useful on behavioural skills. Soft skills show in action, not in a cold retrospective. In-assignment follow-up (above) is the only reliable mechanism.

Mistake 3: Using HR frameworks disconnected from the field

Matrices with “leadership level 3” or “interpersonal communication: achieved” mean nothing to the client. Nothing to sales either. Document situations, not levels.

Mistake 4: Outsourcing evaluation to AI

AI can help structure a pack, rephrase an assignment story, suggest follow-up questions. It cannot watch a consultant handle conflict in a client meeting. Humans remain essential for collection. AI speeds up formatting, including via tools like Betterfolio that assist drafting while keeping the consultant in the loop.

Mistake 5: Ignoring client feedback

End-of-assignment client feedback is gold for soft skills, but only if you ask the right questions. “Are you satisfied?” is useless. “Can you give an example where the consultant showed initiative?” changes everything.

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Action plan: from theory to the field

Week 1: Audit what you have

• Pull ten consultant packs at random
• Count how many include at least one documented critical situation
• Flag assignments over three months with no formal follow-up
• The result will probably be harsh: that is normal; it is the baseline

Weeks 2–3: Pilot the format on five consultants

• Apply the three questions (unexpected, communication, decision) on recent assignments
• Rewrite assignment blocks in the five-element format
• Track time spent: if it goes over 30 minutes per assignment, the format is too heavy

Month 2: Roll out and measure

• Extend the format to all new packs
• Implement the three touchpoints for live assignments
• Track one simple metric: pack-to-client-interview conversion rate
• If it rises, the approach creates value. If not, adjust the questions.

Month 3+: Iterate

• Gather sales feedback: are packs easier to defend?
• Gather client feedback: do interviews start on stronger ground?
• Adjust how many critical situations you document based on assignment length

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What to remember

Moving to hybrid did not make soft skills less important. It made them harder to assess, and therefore more differentiating for ESNs that take it seriously.

Three principles to keep in mind:

• Document situations, not labels: “ambiguity management” means nothing without a concrete example
• Structure the pack so it speaks for itself: the client infers soft skills from facts, not claims
• Instrument in-assignment follow-up: soft skills are captured in real time, not in hindsight

The competency pack is no longer an admin document. In a hybrid context, it is the main trust vector between your ESN and your clients. It might as well be up to the task.