SOFT SKILLS: WHY ARE THEY ESSENTIAL IN THE POST-COVID 19 ERA?

Soft skills have become one of the most sought-after assets for companies and are often placed above technical skills or work experience. Nowadays, companies need people who are more agile and adaptable, able to cope with rapid changes in the market, even more so in an uncertain and volatile economic and employment future such as the one we are living in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic.

The widespread arrival of teleworking, the digitalisation of daily activities and tasks and the limitations of physical contact and mobility have greatly changed the way of socialising, working, communicating… This has marked a change in the professional environment, forcing companies and professionals to adapt to a new context. More and more companies are giving more and more importance to the training of soft skills or soft skills that professionals have. If you want to find out more about soft skills in this new pandemic context, read on.

Table of contents

• The importance of soft skills training
• “Soft skills” and “Hard skills”, what is the difference?
• The soft skills that all companies are looking for
• Discover Soft Skills and their role in professional development

The importance of soft skills training

Adaptation, flexibility and creativity have become the key soft skills in today’s environment. The digitalisation of work has meant that professionals have to be able to adapt to the new situation in order to deal assertively with the changes that have taken place. The uncertainty and volatility of the situation has forced companies to invest in soft skills training so that their employees know how to respond flexibly and efficiently to the situation.

The Covid-19 crisis has had a direct impact on the labour market and the entire economic system. What is the result of this new situation? 42% of the most demanded core professional skills are expected to change completely. Creativity, one of the main skills that differentiate humans from machines, is also key in this respect. Professionals with the ability to come up with new ideas, methods and processes that facilitate work, innovative solutions to problems, will be more relevant and valuable.

“Soft skills” and “Hard skills”, what is the difference?

Public speaking is one of the most essential soft skills for companies. It is the ability to speak fluently in front of an audience. It is very common for people to feel uncomfortable and have problems expressing themselves in front of an audience. It is a soft skill that can be worked on and improved. When a company has to hold a conference or present a new project, the best option is to go for training for employees. In this way, they can improve their public speaking or assertiveness.

By “hard skills” we mean all knowledge acquired through educational training and professional experience. These competences can be taught in academic settings. We can say that hard skills are all those concrete skills that enable a certain task or job to be carried out.

On the other hand, soft skills are much more difficult to quantify and refer to the interpersonal and social skills that the job applicant possesses. These soft skills are manifested in the different ways in which someone relates and interacts with others.

The soft skills that all companies are looking for

Public speaking is one of the most essential soft skills for companies. It is the ability to speak fluently in front of an audience. It is very common for people to feel uncomfortable and have problems expressing themselves in front of an audience. It is a soft skill that can be worked on and improved. When a company has to hold a conference or present a new project, the best option is to go for training for employees. In this way, they can improve their public speaking or assertiveness.

Leadership and coaching are other of the soft skills training most in demand by companies. The way employees with responsibilities within a company act and communicate is a determining factor in the team and its results. For this reason, leadership is one of the fundamental bases. In the case of coaching, there are two types of coaching within a company: executive and organisational. Coaching training will enable your employees to define and achieve their personal and professional goals. This helps in teamwork within the organisation.

Finally, one of the new soft skills that will become extremely important in this new era is the ability to learn how to learn. It is recommended that each employee should set aside 20% of their working time to improve their skills and keep up to date, trying to meet the demands of the labour market at all times.

Discover Soft Skills and their role in professional development

Discover the Soft Skills and their role in professional development. The “urgent” implementation of teleworking in the long term has changed the working methods in many companies, mainly in those that were not fully prepared to deal with this system of work. Against this background, many professionals have encountered obstacles to teamwork, collaborative work, and even active and constant communication in the professional environment. This is where the importance given in the new employability to skills such as persuasion, communication, emotional intelligence or the capacity for virtual collaboration becomes evident.

Soft skills are essential for the smooth running of a company, that’s why it is important to be able to apply them and train employees. Contact us today and start improving Soft Skills in your entire company today!