In recent years, the development of soft skills has become tremendously important for the changing requirements of the workplace. Employees everywhere are expected to do more with less compared to 10 years back. The millennial workforce who is technology savvy is found to be lacking in social skills or other soft skills.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills manifest in various ways. They are defined as a mix of communication skills, people and social skills, and personal traits like attitude to work. In simple terms, they are skills that are not educational or technical in nature but have a critical role to play in team cohesion, efficiency, productivity, and harmony at the workplace.
‘Soft skills’ refer to personal attributes which can impact communication, relationships, and interpersonal interactions. Soft skills relate to the following:
- Emotional intelligence
- Stakeholder management
- Skills of negotiation
- Presentation
- Customer service
- Conflict resolution
- Team work
- Communication effectiveness
- Problem-solving
The capacity to empathize, listen, communicate and overcome difficulties has become as vital for employees as their technical knowledge, educational qualifications, and other such ‘hard skills’.
Relevance to Millennial
The term millennial refers to persons born in the 1980s and 1990s. As per Pew research centre, Millennial outnumbered all other generations in the 2016 workforce.
The fact is that this generation is highly reliant and proficient in modern technology. They also have an ethos of instant gratification. As such, they lack social skills as well as qualities like patience and forbearance.
Why are soft skills important?
As per Forbes, a main coalition of academics, trade groups, policy experts, and businesses have demonstrated that soft skills, especially interpersonal skills, the capacity to manage and control emotions, leadership skills, communication skills, problem-solving, and adaptability, all are highly valuable in the workplace.
Steps to develop soft skills
- Create a mindset for learning
Developing soft skills like emotional intelligence and resilience makes employees ready to work optimally at the workplace. You have to make employees understand that soft skills are valuable and can be learned.
- Encourage self-reflection
You need to encourage employees to self-reflect on soft skills they have and those that they lack in an honest fashion. For this, they can use self-assessment tools as well as 360-degree feedback.
- Expand understanding and knowledge
Workshops, seminars, and conventions are the best opportunities to teach employees the importance of soft skills and the ways to acquire them. Substitute the conference room or training room for an LMS (Learning Management System) to make soft skill training convenient, fun, and engaging. Training delivered by LMS is also cost-effective.
- Provide chances for practice
Provide employees the opportunities to test drive the soft skills they have learned. Outdoor retreats and opt-in assignments are ideal platforms that are risk-free and fun. Online training can exploit LMS features like simulations to offer life-like training scenarios.
- Provide frequent feedback
The manager or leader can help an employee being trained in soft skills in the best way by providing regular feedback. The development of soft skills is an amazingly slow process since it involves changes in habits and personality instead of an addition of knowledge.
In sum, employers providing training in soft skills report a positive impact on their employees, including improved results and higher productivity. With the shift in skills needed at the workplace, it is vital that companies expand and improve business initiatives like corporate training soft skills to ensure business longevity.
