It’s hard to find a business school these days that doesn’t cover soft skills training topics.
Good thing, too! In a recent survey, almost half of top U.S. executives think Americans lack important basic skills for communicating and getting along at work.
What are the so-called “soft skills”?
In case you’re wondering about the difference between soft skills and hard skills, think in terms of what’s easily quantifiable. Accounting and finance are hard skills, while teamwork and motivation are soft skills. Others include:
- creativity
- critical thinking
- collaboration
Why are Americans so lacking in soft skills?
The survey, which was sponsored by Adecco Staffing, also asked business leaders to name what they thought was responsible for our apparent inability to conquer deeper thinking and creativity on the job.
Over half believe that our education system is to blame because it does not cover soft skills training topics that a workforce needs.
Another interesting fact from the Adecco survey what that 22% of those executives surveyed see a serious lack of training and enrichment opportunities. Not only that, but some also feel that they don’t have the manpower to administer training programs that target soft skill training topics.
How to bring up soft skills training topics into your workforce.
Communication is the fundamental building block of all other soft skills. You can’t be a good leader without first knowing how to communicate well. You can’t properly and truly motivate your team if you don’t know how to connect with them and speak to their goals and needs. It’s as simple as that.
So, how can you help your employees get better at these skills, especially if you’re like many of the execs in the survey and don’t have the resources to offer training? One way is to outsource it to us.
Team building can help bring along your team’s important soft skills.
If your internal team isn’t equipped to handle soft skills training topics, or if their plates are already full, a viable alternative to in-house training is booking a team building workshop.
Team building workshops build team skills like communication, big picture thinking, creative problem solving, collaboration, and dealing with feedback.
Team building workshops that target relevant workplace skills but run their events in a fun, interactive style can boost soft skills dramatically. But then it takes practice over time to really hone those skills before you see radical jumps in productivity. But the workshops can launch a soft skills revolution in your office, if they’re done right. For more info on how we cover soft skills training topics, give us a call- we’d love to tell you all about it!