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Leverage Soft Skills to Accelerate Employee Training

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According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures, just under one-third of French people from 25 to 64 attend work-related training each year. Compared against research showing that 32% of jobs will change with technological progress and 14% risk being automated, this shift may cause concern for employers as they look to remain competitive and sustain business in the future. For employers, training will become crucial to address organizational skill gaps with the introduction of new technologies. From the employee perspective, the 2017 Cegos Barometer shows that, while 99% of French employees believe it is important to train throughout life, only 28% of them consider vocational training to be relevant for companies (Institut YouGov study).

Develop Strategic Social Skills

With the reality of declining employee engagement and increasing turnover, a direct consequences of dissatisfaction with professional training, companies must take the lead in developing the social and situational skills that will ensure their success in a changing environment.

Although the workplace is changing to be increasingly digital, this doesn’t limit employers to “hard skills” but also opens the door for “soft skills” training, which provides long term personal and professional development for employees. In a recent survey conducted by RegionJobs, 82% of the 6,790 respondents (324 recruiters and 6466 candidates) voted that life skills are the most important recruitment criteria. This finding was supported by a study completed by the Employment Guidance Council, confirming the importance of socio-emotional skills — such as self-control, problem solving and perseverance — for the emerging and evolving professions.

Unleashing the Company’s Potential by Unlocking the Potential of Employees

In the same survey from RegionJobs, the findings go on to that “life skills while considered crucial, recruiters still tend to be more flexible with them”. This is similar to the rationalization that occurs when people on a diet “cheat”, a common example of cognitive dissonance.

On the other hand, it is imperative for companies to rethink both recruitment and training. Employees need to be assured that the training provided will enable them to develop professionally by addressing both hard and soft skills. While employer-sponsored training will empower employees to become active participants in their development, while benefiting from the current political and legislative incentives, such as training tax benefits.

Rely on New Training Methods

With improvements to digital learning tools, learner engagement has increased through a personalized approach that takes the individual’s personality and motivations into account. Through having engaged learners, organizations are able to manage training programs upstream and develop skills from within their current organization, allowing them to remain competitive while retaining their existing workforce.

Although the positive impact of these tools is apparent at the macro level, it’s no secret that digital learning solutions can be costly to implement. So, can we evaluate the monetary return on our investment? In looking at IBM’s study on the ROI of training they estimated they were able to save nearly $200 million after implementing an e-learning strategy. Furthermore, through a study conducted by the American Society for Training and Development, it was found that an adapted training program improves employee income by 218%.

Changing working environments and attitudes

As new work environments emerge in the digital age, organizations must encourage new behaviours to facilitate learning — such as, manager engagement for communication of objectives, valuing efforts and rewarding success. It’s also critical to review the company’s decision-making processes and ensure it allows for autonomy, while providing flexibility for new initiatives or innovation.

In looking at soft skills, we’re promoting that it is necessary for employers to promote learning for individuals, which implies a de facto — or inherent — change in management style, allowing for more freedom for both managers and employees.

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by Rose Zaynab Mounsif