In today’s environment, there’s a lot of focus on hard skills development, especially among professionals in finance, accounting, and tech roles. 

Hard skills, such as programming knowledge, reporting, and data analysis, are sought after by employers who need individuals with specific capabilities to drive their departments forward.

However, there’s a lack of focus on soft skills, which can be just as important to organizations that need help increasing revenues and developing key business relationships with partners and customers.

You can help your employees work on their soft skills through individualized and group training programs, often at a low cost. Here are a few critical soft skills that most businesses can benefit from.

Teamwork

Teamwork is essential for workplace collaboration and special projects. Rarely can a company or department succeed on the back of one individual; usually, multiple people are necessary to assist in projects and tasks. In a department like sales or marketing, employees may regularly work with other team members and with clients, too.

Building your organization’s teamwork skills can lead to better communication among employees. In addition, they’ll learn about their unique strengths, allowing them to understand who to go to when they have specific needs.

Problem-Solving

You might not think about problem-solving when you think of soft skills, but it’s a critical trait to have. Individuals with the ability to solve problems don’t give up when tough times arise; instead, they think about the issue critically and seek to find a solution, sometimes using uncommon methods.

Problem-solving is a soft skill people can work on by regularly solving increasingly tricky issues. You can improve your team’s problem-solving skills by providing them with theoretical problems and observing how they work through them.

Communication

Communication is another soft skill often overlooked by hiring managers. Many people highlight their communication skills on their resume when looking for a new position, but they offer little proof to satisfy their claims.

Poor communication skills can harm relationships, lead to bad team performance, and result in declining customer relationships. When your employees can’t communicate effectively, critical information is lost. 

For instance, poor communicators might fail to notify your customer of the need to renew a service, resulting in lost revenue. Or they might not tell a manager when the inventory of a product is low, resulting in customer dissatisfaction.

Body Language

Body language can have a more significant effect on people than words. Poor body language can result in miscommunication and angry customers, but this is easily avoidable with the proper training.

Improving body language is especially important for individuals in customer-facing roles, like salespeople and customer service professionals. Employees can accidentally offend others with the wrong body language by conveying anger, boredom, or a lack of interest. 

Fortunately, training can help workers ensure they aren’t using body language incongruously with their true intentions. For instance, you could show your workers videos of proper body language versus ineffective body language. You could even film them in action, allowing them to identify how they can improve themselves.

Time Management

When you think of time management, you probably envision arriving to work on time or scheduling your day in accordance with your current priorities. However, time management is much more than simple scheduling. It also involves handling your tasks promptly, ensuring that no one is waiting on you to finish something you’re responsible for.

Good time management is a principle you’ll want to abide by when it comes to customers. Clients expect their appointments to begin when scheduled and don’t want to wait in long lines to purchase a product or service. 

You can help your employees work on their time management skills through simple exercises designed to make them mindful of everyone’s time.

Etiquette

Etiquette, or good manners, is another soft skill that you can impose on your employees. While most individuals are taught the importance of manners by their parents and teachers, sometimes people need a little refresher course, especially if they’re in a customer-facing role. Employees who undergo training will learn the importance of etiquette in business and client relationships and other aspects of their lives.

Make Soft Skills Training Essential for Your Organization

I’d love to help you develop vital soft skill leadership skills for your people. Connect with me to learn more about Relevant Movement’s coaching program and upskill your team with leadership skills and more.