Soft skills are indispensable. We’ll name 6 reasons why!

Soft skills are highly needed for employees to keep being successful at their job. As an employer, it is very important to invest in your employees’ soft skills. Will you join us on a learning journey?

1. An improved competitive position

A growing economy provides many new developments to which organizations have to respond. In order to stay ahead of your competition, innovation is of great importance. That means people have to be prepared to keep learning new things. An organization with a mentality that comes down to "Why do we need to change, we’ve always acted this way?’’ will sooner or later dunk its head.

For there are so many new developments which will force you to keep making adjustments. Not only does that mean you’ll have to find a new way of leadership, it also means your employees need to be flexible; people who think of great ideas and turn these into actual results.

To be critical on each others work and to be open to feedback. Soft skills are essential when it comes to a great collaboration. And that is exactly what you need going into battle

2. Attracting new talents

The economy will keep growing for the next couple of years and there’s a big chance your organization will grow with it. That means new employees have to be found as well. This is known as the ‘’war for talent’’: all organizations try to make sure they have the right people working for them with the right skills and the right knowledge.

Soft skills trainings could really make a difference in this. In order to attract new talent, your organization has to have something to offer.

Money?

Yes, of course, but luckily it’s not all about the salary. Research shows that newcomers on the job market feel attracted to employers that offer development possibilities, which enables the starters to keep expanding their knowledge. By investing in trainings and education, your attractiveness as an employer will definitely increase.

3. Retaining your employees

The economical growth provides jobs. A logical consequence of this is that colleagues will start looking for different and other functions either within your company, or at another organization. Big chance some of your team members will leave soon because they found a "new challenge’’. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? It might sound a little odd, but to invest in an employee’s employability, their loyalty towards the organization will grow.

By employability we mean peoples’ functionality. If you make sure your employees will have the opportunity to keep developing themselves, they will stay flexible and viable. Not only do you provide an opportunity for your employees to keep working at your company, they will also value you as an employer much higher. All of this contributes to people wanting to keep working in your organization.

4. Sustainable employability of staff members

Organizations that take in account employees’ health, engagement and job satisfaction will reap the harvest of this themselves. Did you know for instance that 36% of the job-related absenteeism is caused by stress? Over 1 million Dutch people deal with a burn-out, of which 240.000 are young employees. Job stress should therefore be eliminated as quickly as possible.

But how?

One of the answers is to equip employees with soft skills. Employees who set the right priorities and are good at planning are less stressed than their co-workers who are less good at using these skills. Also, it is important for employees to address each other and to point out when they’ve got too much on their plate job-wise. Of course, some people are more sensitive to feeling stressed than others, but your organization can absolutely make a difference in this.

5. Surviving in a complex world.

Apart from the earlier mentioned competition and war for talent, there are much more challenges today’s world entails. The world is changing rapidly, think for instance of the Brexit, the upcoming large economies like China and Brazil, climate change and let alone all the digital developments. All of these changes influence your organization, whether that’s directly or indirectly. Your employees should ask themselves: "If something in the environment changes, does it have any consequences for my job activities?" This means colleagues have to keep a critical attitude towards one another, to think of ways to keep working optimally and they have to keep listening to each other. This is where personal leadership comes in. If employees feel responsible for the work they do, they will much more likely feel obligated to do it as exceptional as possible.

6. A pleasant working environment

Many books have been written about business culture and how this comes about. A common denominator in all these theories is the thought that culture influences employees’ performance, which influences the overall organization in the end as well. In order to keep being successful, all employees should get along well. Even though this statement might sound very logical, it’s actually true. And in order to achieve this, soft skills come in more than handy. For employees that are open to each other and are willing to adapt to a certain situation, are much more likely to easily handle cultural changes.

Investing in soft skills teaches people for instance to listen to each other, and to be more willing to help one another. Giving and receiving appreciation is indispensable for most people, not just in their daily lives but also in their jobs. Soft skills contribute to an organizational culture in which everyone feels at home. And let’s be honest: which employer wouldn’t want that?!

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