What do you look for when evaluating employees and potential hires? If you’re like most owners or managers, you prioritize the experience and competencies necessary to perform a job the right way. 

These hard skills are essential, but if you want to create a positive company culture and develop your employees to be the best they can be, you shouldn’t discount the importance of soft skills in the workplace. Here are some of the most important soft skills to emphasize this year.

Communication 

If you want an efficient and effective workforce, communication is one of the first things to focus on. And when it comes to communication, many employees take cues from management. 

This means that top-down communication — from leadership to lower-level employees — should be frequent, thorough, and respectful. Likewise, fostering frequent bottom-up communication will help your organization change for the better. 

Many lower-level employees are hesitant to share their honest thoughts about management for fear of repercussions. But when you encourage open dialogue and make it clear to your employees that their perspectives are valued, you’ll get a clearer picture of day-to-day operations and how to improve them.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand thoughts and feelings — both in yourself and in other people. Your employees rely on each other to succeed, so if you want a strong, unified, and positive workplace, it’s vital to promote emotional intelligence.

Some people mistakenly think that emotional intelligence cannot be taught — and that people simply have it or don’t. However, it’s possible to cultivate this soft skill in your workforce. Here are a few ways to start:

• Foster open communication
• Recognize the efforts of employees who go above and beyond
• Demonstrate empathy for employees and encourage it in others
• Allow and encourage vulnerability in the workplace

Emotional intelligence often develops best at an individual level. Consider hosting workshops to help your employees understand the importance of emotional intelligence and how to develop it in themselves.

Adaptability and Flexibility

The best leaders are able to adapt to changing situations. But unfortunately, many workplaces develop a culture where employees fear taking risks. That can lead to stagnation and missed opportunities for growth. 

The best ways to build a flexible and adaptable workforce involve embracing change as a company and encouraging employees to have a growth mindset:

• Maintain a capital reserve and encourage employees to take calculated risks
• Embrace emerging technology and help employees understand how to use it
• Reward employees who take initiative
• Develop diverse and cross-functional teams

When you positively reinforce innovation in your workforce, you’ll see a culture of flexibility start to emerge.

Collaboration

Workplaces grow when employees work together, and the best way to encourage this is to facilitate collaboration every day. When you have a mix of both formal and informal collaboration, you’ll see your company benefit from its collective strength.

For example, structured mentoring and employee development programs offer great opportunities for formal collaboration. To foster informal collaboration, focus on building a sense of community in your workplace. This will help employees feel more at ease with one another — and therefore more inclined to work together when they need to.

Time Management and Organization

In many companies, time management is one of the soft skills everyone needs to work on. Organization is an important part of time management, but so is respect. When you emphasize the importance of handling tasks promptly and respecting everyone’s time, time management can become a company value.

A top-down approach is especially effective here. In many industries, lower-level employees don’t feel valued. When your leaders are respectful of the time of every single employee, they send a powerful message that your entire organization will hear.

Take Your Organization to the Next Level

You know how to manage your business. But what about managing your human capital? At AssetHR, we support your business by supporting your people. Whether you need to strengthen your HR department, develop your leaders, ensure legal compliance, or otherwise manage your human capital, get in touch to see what we can accomplish together!