5 Reasons Why Soft Skills Matter

5 Reasons Why Soft Skills Matter 5 Reasons Why Soft Skills Matter Soft skills are the personable attributes that contribute more to an employee’s ability to interact effectively and in harmony with other people. With all the advancements in technology, digital communications, and endless connectivity, read why there is a growing demand for soft skills in today’s job market. 5. Interactions between recruiters and job seekers demand soft skills Today’s job markets offer people from around the world an unlimited source of choices. This allows for job seekers to search on their devices from a LinkedIn app, website, and/or conduct phone screening job interviews. At some point, job seekers communicate with recruiters who have their job to do of finding appropriate job candidates. It is both vital to the recruiter and the job seeker that they are able to communicate with each other. One has a job to get and the other has a job task to complete. There is no time for awkward communications. 4. Today’s workplace demands interpersonal skills Skills such as listening, collaborating, presenting ideas, and communicating with others are all highly valued in a workplace. A person with the strongest soft skills will lead teams to positive results in a productive and healthy work environment. Organizations know these skills will make their companies more competitive in today’s fast-paced business world. This LinkedIn report shows that 6 out of the 10 most in-demand jobs for 2018 require soft skills for communicating and engaging with customers. 3. Soft skills are extremely difficult to teach and learn Comparing hard skills to soft skills, a “hard skill”, such as engineering or programming, is something a person can learn through taking courses. It is not necessarily hard and only requires a short period of commitment. However, a “soft skill” has little to do with expertise in a field. Soft skills are linked closely to a person’s life experience with relationships, integrity, and character. These are skills you cannot learn in four years at college. It takes conscious effort and ongoing practice to develop soft skills. Most of all, it requires making yourself vulnerable to failure and holding yourself accountable. Having the skills to do this requires a lifetime of learning. If you are advanced in these skills you will definitely set yourself apart from other job candidates. 2. Hard skills are useless without soft skills Tech skills are not enough to be an effective leader. You may be a great project manager because of your tech skills, but the lack of soft skills will prevent you from becoming an effective CEO one day. A salesperson with superior knowledge of a market has little success if they have no idea how to close deals and retain clients. If a job seeker is missing soft skills, such as critical, creative thinking and being able to listen to employees or clients, his or her hard skills will be useless to a company. People may be able to build a product on their own, but the lack of soft skills will make others want to use the product less. 1. The future of the workplace with demand soft skills A 2018 study by National Softskills, shows that 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft skills and people skills. This was mainly caused by placing a focus on education surrounding hard skills over the last 100 years in the US. Long-term thinking, AI, and automation will eventually lead to a decrease in demand for hard skills. As technology makes providing knowledge easier, it will be more important to have communication skills to acquire hard skills faster. Over the last 100 years, the understanding of why soft skills should be taught was lost. People who can communicate, think creatively, solve problems, be positive in the face of criticism, and work under pressure, are all soft skills every company wants! Such employees with soft skills are flexible, easier to work with and make both employees and customers feel comfortable interacting with a company.