Why are soft skills important?
Most interactions with other people require some level of soft skills. At a company you might be negotiating to win a new contract, presenting your new idea to colleagues, networking for a new job, and so on. We use soft skills every day at work and developing these soft skills will help you win more business and accelerate your career progression.
On the other hand, a lack of soft skills can limit your potential, or even be the downfall of your business. By developing strong leadership, delegation, teamwork, and communication abilities, you can run projects more smoothly, deliver results that please everyone, and even positively influence your personal life by improving how you interact with others.
1.Career progression and promotion
CIMS Hiring Insights found that "Ninety-four percent of recruiting professionals believe an employee with stronger soft skills has a better chance of being promoted to a leadership position than an employee with more years of experience but weaker soft skills."
It's become vital to develop these skills if you want to progress in your career as they will set you apart from others at the interview and on the job.
2.The modern workplace is interpersonal
Skills such as active listening, collaboration, presenting ideas, and communicating with colleagues are all highly valued in the modern workplace. Strong soft skills ensure a productive, collaborative, and healthy work environment, all crucial attributes for organizations in an increasingly competitive world.
3.Customers and clients demand soft skills
Consumers these days have a huge number of choices of where to buy from, bought about by the internet and smartphones. For these consumers, convenience and low prices are easy to come by, so customer service is often what influences the choice to use a particular business.
The ability to communicate at a human level with customers is, therefore, a vital factor in an organization’s success.
4.The future workplace will rely on soft skills
Automation and artificial intelligence will result in a greater proportion of jobs relying on soft skills. Advances in technology have caused tasks that require hard skills to decline, making soft skills a key differentiator in the workplace. A study by Deloitte Access Economics predicts that “Soft skill-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by”.
As the cost of robots decreases and the performance of artificial intelligence improves, jobs such as manufacturing line workers will become automated. Traditional skills like teamwork, communication, and critical thinking will be more important than ever.
5.Soft skills are hard to automate
Following on from the previous point, soft skills such as emotional intelligence are hard to automate and unlikely to become automated anytime soon. This means they're expected to become more desirable in the near future.
However soft skills can be difficult to teach and track improvements on. Companies such as VirtualSpeech are tackling this by using as a way to improve soft skills.
6.Soft skills are in high demand by recruiters
Soft skills are in high demand in the workforce. According to a paper by a Harvard student on the importance of social skills in the labor market, jobs requiring high levels of social interaction grew by nearly 12 percent as a share of the U.S. labor force.