How important are soft skills vs. hard skills when hiring a new employee?

I have always believed that soft skills are so important when hiring a new employee. It is great if the employee has the hard skills so there is less training required and a shorter transition period but I would choose an applicant with a positive, open minded, team player attitude who needs to be trained over someone with larger skill set but a more difficult personality. I always ask more questions in the interview process that allow me to evaluate their soft skills and how well they will integrate within the organization and mesh with their team. I have hired people before that were exceptionally skilled at their job but were very difficult, not a team player, and uncooperative and unfortunately learned my lesson the hard way. You can identify people that are eager to learn and able to adapt. I would hire them over someone without the soft skills, hands down.

Soft skills are the first priority. You can teach people how to complete tasks, but it is not so easy to teach Integrity and kindness to an adult.