When employers consider training solutions for their employees, they often only focus on the technical competence and abilities pertaining to a specific set of skills or tasks. For example, employers will want their welders to improve their welding skills, or they will want to train their engineers to improve their engineering skills. These are referred to as ‘hard skills’.
Subsequently they often overlook the benefits of developing their employees’ soft skills, which are critical in the day-to-day operations of a business. Soft skills include: a combination of people skills; social skills; communication skills; and character traits; that enable people to navigate their environment, to work well with others and to perform well.
Soft skills are sometimes defined as desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge. These include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive, flexible attitude.
Typical soft skills training includes:
- Customer Service
- Leadership & Management
- Problem Solving
- Presentation Skills
- Time Management
- Communication Skills
When employers focus on developing both hard skills and soft skills in their employees, they will benefit from the full potential of their teams.
A quick test
Is your business failing to reach its potential because of underdeveloped soft skills?
- Are you sitting with teams that don’t have the necessary people skills when it comes to retaining clients?
- Do you have a high staff turnover and constantly have to retrain staff?
- Are your employees unmotivated and have unprofessional working habits?
- Does your business have a lot of managers, but very few true leaders?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, chances are that you have a soft skills gap in your business. Developing soft skills among your workforce holds a number of benefits for the company and employees.
Benefits to the company:
- Increase in customer satisfaction
- Increase in staff morale
- Driven, motivated employees result in an increase in productivity
- Better teamwork
- Stronger leadership
Benefits to the employee:
- Ability to communicate more effectively with colleagues and clients
- Opens doors to promotions and advancement opportunities
- Increase in staff’s ability to perform a job
- Professional accomplishment
- Recognition from employer and peers
It is not only important to encourage the development of these skills in our teams, but also to cultivate them within ourselves!
SEESA Skills Training offers an affordable solution when it comes to empowering your workforce with the necessary soft skills. Ranging from courses focusing on improving communication and listening skills to problem-solving, decision-making and conflict management. View our full list of courses at training.seesa.co.za.