Why soft skills are important for all employees

Posted 4 years ago

No matter where you are in your work journey – whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, whether you’ve been at your job for eons or just joined yesterday – soft skills are the unsung heroes of your career. These skills aren’t tied to your age, your tenure, or your specific job title, but they can make a real difference!

You might notice that you flex these skills differently, or maybe you lean on one more than the others. And that’s perfectly fine! We all have our soft skill specialties. If you’ve been in business a while and find yourself in a leadership position, you might possess or want to develop these soft skills:

Active Listening
Empathy
Communication skills
Problem-solving
Confidence
Teamwork skills
Time management
Delegation
Motivational skills
Conflict resolution

And there are so many more!

Leaders come in all shapes and sizes – team leaders, managers, supervisors, and even business owners. To keep your team running like a well-oiled machine, you’ve got to have these skills in your toolkit. Also, it’s essential that you can inspire and motiviate your team…

Organisational skills and people management are core parts of being a leader too. Hard skills might be required as part of a job role in some positions, but with the increase in demand for people to have well developed soft skills, employers might be more inclined to hire a manager that is able to inspire their team every day over someone who has an extra qualification to their name because they would be able to utilise the skills of their team.

A study found 93% of employers said that Soft Skills are either an “essential” or “very important” factor in hiring decisions.

Wonderlic

Shifting gears to those who are just starting their careers, young employees, or those who might be new to full-time paid employment, will also require a strong set of soft skills. The most important aspect of soft skills for young people is that they are transferable. Regardless of what job or industry they have been developed in, you could easily apply them across a multitude of job roles.

In fact, with 92% of talent acquisition professionals reporting that soft skills are equally or more important when hiring than hard skills (LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends), it’s now equally as important for young people to develop these skills with equal importance to hard skills.

Young employees might want to think about developing these skills…

Creative and/or critical thinking
Problem-solving
Mindfulness
Time Management
Communication skills
Worth ethic
Interpersonal skills
Emotional intelligence
Listening skills
Resilience
Observational skills
Relationship building

Soft skills aren’t just a nice-to-have anymore. They’re a must-have, especially when you’re starting your career.

In conclusion, no matter where you’re at in your career journey, soft skills are your secret weapon. With employers putting more stock in these skills, not having them could make you stand out for all the wrong reasons.

Online Soft Skills Training

Here at iHasco, we offer a range of Soft Skills Training courses that are designed to equip your staff with the skills they need to thrive in the modern workplace.

It’s now been two years since we initially launched our Soft Skill library, and due to immense popularity, it has doubled in size! Meaning you can train your staff in an even wider range of soft skill areas! By providing effective training for your staff, you’ll be helping to instill trust by developing and solidifying the level of expertise within your organisation.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started with a no-obligation free trial today, or request a quote and a member of our team will be in touch to discuss your training needs.