Background

What are Soft Skills?

It’s the million dollar question. What are soft skills? How are they best described? There are many sources of information on this topic. We found an excellent website that identified about 30 resources on soft skills and various ways of identifying, describing, and grouping them. We were curious which “soft skills” were identified in literature most frequently.

This chart shows the results of our initial research: Link to Research

Of course, this chart is a little unwieldly and doesn’t lend itself as well to talking about soft skills in general. We liked a definition of soft skills we found in Soft Skills Development: Improving Organizational Effectiveness – a resource developed by Workforce Planning Hamilton:

“Soft skills are personal attributes that enable individuals to interact effectively with one another. More specifically, soft skills are behaviours that allow individuals to work and socialize well with others. Ultimately, they are behaviours that foster relationships within an organization that may lead to improved productivity.”

Why All the Fuss About Soft Skills?

Research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center has concluded that 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft and people skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills). A public interest study conducted by McDonald’s in the UK has predicted over half a million people will be held back from job sectors by 2020 due to lack of soft skills.

Here are some more statistics that speak to the value of soft skills in the workplace:

A US survey has found miscommunication costs businesses with up to 100 staff an average of US$420,000 per year. Even more staggeringly, in another study, 400 businesses with at least 100,000 employees each claimed that inadequate communication cost an average of US$62.4 million per company per year.

A study of science recruiters found 60% of respondents rated the ability to work collaboratively as most important, followed by adaptability (45%) and interpersonal relationship building (41%). Most respondents felt that applicants were lacking in these skills, particularly in critical thinking.

Notably, this study showed that employers considered soft skills as important as academic ability. Yet both current and potential employees are often reported as being “deficient” in these same skills.

It may appear that these core communication skill requirements of employers have not changed much over time. But the emphasis on collaborative work has altered dramatically. A Harvard Business Review study found that the time managers and employees spend on collaborative activities has increased by more than 50% in the past 20 years.

Modern workplace environments reflect this shift. Open-plan workplaces designed to increase interaction and collaboration are the norm. So, in addition to the job’s requirements, workplace design means these interpersonal and influencing skills are more important than ever.

In the past, you could escape difficult personalities and noisy co-workers by shutting the office door. The design of the modern workplace, coupled with the increased requirement to collaborate across teams and divisions, underscores the importance of increasing the soft-skill capacity of current and future employees.

Teaching Soft Skills

So, what happens if someone is lacking in soft skills? Does teaching soft skills differ from teaching other types of literacy and numeracy skills? Some would argue “yes”. According to this article from the Conversation: “Developing these skills in young people will require not only a shift in subject matter, but also a change in how students are taught. Only one in ten Australian teachers have recently participated in professional development to help students develop generic, transferable skills for future work.

Soft skills have more to do with who people are, rather than what they know. As such, soft skills encompass the character traits that decide how well one interacts with others, and are usually a definite part of one's personality. Whereas hard skills can be learned and perfected over time, soft skills are more difficult to acquire and change. The soft skills required for a doctor, for example, would be empathy, understanding, active listening and a good bedside manner. Alternatively, the hard skills necessary for a doctor would include a vast comprehension of illnesses, the ability to interpret test results and symptoms, and a thorough understanding of anatomy and physiology.”

According to Business News Daily:

While it's true that certain attributes are difficult to force if employees don't naturally have them, they're not impossible to teach. One of the most important things you can do to improve employees' soft skills is to offer well-rounded training opportunities for your staff. The Udemy report found that 72 percent of companies surveyed provide training that is only related to employees' roles. Paul Sebastien, vice president and general manager of Udemy for Business, said managers are often busy with the task at hand so they may not consider the less-than-motivating message these narrow training programs send to employees.

"Rounding out hard and soft skills in areas outside of employees' job descriptions brings untold benefits to the company," Sebastien said. "The most successful teams consist of members who have skillsets that complement one another and play off of team members' strengths. When employers invest in training in hard and soft skills, it helps employees feel valued as they work toward career development goals."

You don't even need a formal training program to help employees build their soft skills — Sebastien advised having employees set skill-related goals for themselves during the performance-review process, and help them access resources to achieve those goals.

"Look for opportunities for employees to practice soft skills that may need work," he said. "One example is leading meetings to practice public speaking, in an environment where they can feel safe to fail. Encourage all employees to share personal successes as well as failures so others can learn from these victories and shortcomings."

The other key way to improve employee's soft skills is leading by example. The company culture and work environment you establish as a manager play a huge role in encouraging (or discouraging) the development of these skills. If you want employees to work hard and collaborate with each other, you need to show them how first.

"[Soft skills are] something you learn by doing, and you have to live it to learn it," Ciamillo added. "It's like parenting — your children don't do what you say, they do what you do. If you are a good example and live by the culture you want to establish ... [your] workers will follow."

Research Reports

Soft Skills Framework Report