With regard to training at the workplace, soft skills are often neglected as they don’t produce tangible results like working with software or project management. But many studies have proved that they are critical skills at the workplace, which much impact the fortunes of a business.
Soft skills are abilities that comprise your behaviours, personality traits and attitudes. Such skills impact the way you perform a role and interact with other persons, particularly in the workplace. One cannot gain success merely with technical skills. Without soft skills, you cannot deal with all the challenges at the workplace.
Though it is tough to deliver soft skills training, it has become more valuable than ever. Businesses that invest in soft skills training for their personnel are the ones who are market leaders and high revenue grosser.
For instance, a study by MIT Sloan reported that a year-long, controlled soft skills training in 5 different factories generated a 250% ROI, simply in 8 months. Such training included decision-making and problem-solving skills, which improved the efficiency of complicated tasks, enhanced employee performance, and boosted productivity. Another study by Google called Project Oxygen’ found that the 7 top features of success at Google are soft skills.
Following are the top soft skills essential for all organizations:
- Verbal communication
Even the CEO of Virgin Atlantic, Richard Branson, deemed verbal communication as a key factor for success and that it is a learnable art. The leading job platform, Monster, found that among its millions of job postings, great oral communication is among the most in-demand soft skills. This is because even the most brilliant ideas fail to impress if not communicated properly.
- Effective skills of writing
It is quite common to find CV’s that feature spelling and grammar mistakes. Such errors even persist at the workplace where such candidates are hired. From client proposals to business cases to routine e-mails, the better are your writing skills, the superior the impression you make on persons you deal with, such as supervisors, team members, clients, bosses, and colleagues.
- Creativity and problem solving
Most employees desire to hire persons who can solve problems independently while knowing when to seek help from others. You can acquire skills of problem-solving through clear & methodical thinking and patience. Solutions to several problems depend completely on creativity and critical thinking. This is because solutions to many issues are not naturally obvious. Creativity, thankfully is not limited to a few and can be honed through coaching and training.
- Persuading and influencing
You can persuade and influence others only through personal qualities like belief, empathy and self-esteem. Such qualities can be honed by bundles of soft skill training.
- Time and people management
As employees, one must know how to manage time efficiently and stick to deadlines of project delivery. Since time is vital, it is important for employees to know the difference between effectiveness and efficiency while managing their time.
It is also vital for an employee to know how to handle other persons. Knowing how to manage others needs a strong grasp of human behaviour and how to positively impact such behaviours.
- Teamwork and collaboration
Organizations can enjoy the improvement of performance across the board when employees become skilled in collaborating well with each other and work out business solutions as a team.
- Managing change
When leaders and employees become experts at change management, they can adapt fast in response to new needs, circumstances, ideas and other changes.
- Conflict resolution
Some conflicts may be healthy, but most impact the business negatively. Hence it is good to have skills in conflict resolution, especially in leadership roles. One must be adept at diffusing tension and disagreements between colleagues as well as juniors.
In sum, these are the major soft skills that must be imparted to employees of all businesses. Emotional intelligence, which is at the heart of such skills, is a quality that is becoming much valued for all workplaces.
