In recent years, there has been an increased focus on the importance of corporate soft skills training for employees. Soft skills are the personal attributes and abilities that enable someone to interact effectively with others. They are often described as people skills or interpersonal skills.
As workers spend more hours at their workplace and the distinction between work and home life blur, it has become increasingly necessary that employee’s skill sets should encompass both hard and soft skills. On one hand, soft skills are abilities such as teamwork, time management, and communication that are essential for a worker to do well on the job. On the other hand, hard skills refer to technical skills needed for specific jobs. In spite of the substantial overlap between these two types of skills, it is clear that both are important for workers to succeed in their careers, with soft skills being just as essential as technical ones.
This blog post highlights the 4 most significant reasons to provide soft skills training to your employees and ways to do that.
Why is Soft Skills Training Important?
You can’t witness a direct ROI of the time, money, and efforts you spend in soft skills training of your employees. But you will defiantly feel it as a strong undercurrent in their performances. Following are the 4 core areas where you can measure the positive impact of corporate soft skills training.
- Retention & Job Satisfaction of the Employees
Everyone who has worked in an office knows that most office workers spend their day running from meeting to meeting, dealing with paperwork, and trying to get tasks done on tight schedules. This can be a very stressful work environment, especially if deadlines are not being met or there have been internal changes at the job. One of the main reasons many people leave their jobs is due to the lack of communication within their company.
There are various reasons employees will leave their current job. Many employees will leave because they feel as if they no longer fit into the company’s culture. At other companies, employees may not feel that they are offered adequate opportunities for professional growth, which leads some employees to seek out other positions at other companies where they feel there will be a better opportunity for advancement.
Soft skills training helps with employee retention and experience. According to LinkedIn’s workforce learning report, 94% of employees are willing to stay in a company that invests in their learning. Employees who feel like they’re constantly learning and growing are more likely to stick around and have a positive experience at your company.
- Team Bonding and Productivity
Employees can learn how to communicate better and collaborate with their colleagues when they have the opportunity to work on their soft skills. This can lead to a more cohesive and productive team.
- Elevated Levels of Confidence & Self-esteem
Your team members get a chance to build their skillset through these training programs because they learn to believe in their capabilities. This can lead to improved performance and greater satisfaction in their work.
- Trust & Credibility
Employees are seen as more credible and competent by their colleagues when they get an opportunity to improve their skillset resulting in enhanced networking opportunities and greater job satisfaction.
How to Give Soft Skills Training to Employees?
Hopefully, by now, you are convinced about the invaluable difference soft skills make to the lives of your employees and, ultimately, to your company’s performance. But how to train your people? Here are some common soft skills your team must be trained in and how you can help them.
- Leadership
It’s not only for bosses. Leadership skills can benefit everyone to enhance productivity. Soft skills training courses are a great way to learn and build leadership skills.
You can enrol yourself to become a soft skills trainer and conduct employee training sessions. This way, you can do more sessions beyond just leadership skills.
- Time Management
The best way to learn time management is to appoint mentors for workplace coaching. These mentors can guide your team to manage tasks and prioritize their work to help them achieve their goals. A manager in your company or an external consultant can play this role well.
- Communication
The good communicators of your organization can be roped in to give tips, speeches, and lessons on good communication skills. Some group activities and games also improve communication within the teams. And don’t underestimate the effect of causal events and dinners. These events also go a long way to increase team bonding.
- Presentation Skills
Employees represent your brand. So when they speak to a client or at an event, their presentation skills must be top-notch. You can hold sessions, demos, and workshops on enhancing presentation skills. In modern times the correct use of digital tools also matters. Keeping that in mind, work on improving the overall communication of your people.
- Empathy
You may think this quality is a given in all human beings. But some people need to be trained in emotional intelligence. Managers need to understand the challenges their subordinates face. You can teach empathy to all your team players and leaders through feedback sessions, group activities, and helpful literature.
Here are some tips for giving your employees soft skills training:
1. Make sure your employees are aware of the importance of soft skills.
Many employees simply don’t realize how important soft skills are. As a result, they don’t see the need for training.
It’s important to make sure your employees are aware of the benefits of soft skills training. Once they understand the importance of soft skills, they’ll be more likely to participate in training.
2. Offer training that is tailored to your employees’ needs.
Not all employees will need the same type of soft skills training. Some may need help with communication, while others may need help with teamwork.
It’s important to offer training that is tailored to your employees’ needs. That way, they’ll be more likely to get the most out of the training.
3. Make sure the training is interactive.
Soft skills training shouldn’t be a lecture. It should be interactive so that employees can learn by doing.
There are a number of ways to make training interactive. One way is to use role-playing exercises. Another way is to use real-life scenarios.
4. Follow up after the training.
Once the training is over, it’s important to follow up with your employees. Make sure they understand what they learned and how they can apply it to their work.
Soft skills training can be extremely beneficial for both employees and employers. By following these tips, you can make sure your employees get the most out of the training.
It is clear that soft skills training is essential for your employees and can be easily implemented in your workplace with some planning and effort. There are several reasons why soft skills training is beneficial for your employees, such as improving communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, and creativity. If you can’t think of a reason for not providing soft skills training for your employees, then you should definitely consider arranging it.
Author Bio:
Suman Agarwal is an award-winning image management professional. She has helped students, home-makers, women on sabbatical as well as people seeking second career alternatives to explore Image Management and Soft Skill Training as a vibrant professional choice. She frequently writes blog posts about the urgent need of image consulting professionals and soft skill trainers
in the 21st century and loves guiding people in exploring lucrative career options. Write to her at sumanagarwal@imageconsultinginstitute.com to seek advanced career guidance.
