THE SOFT SKILLS THAT ALL COMPANIES ARE LOOKING FOR

Soft skills are all those skills that are related to emotional intelligence. Although it may come as a surprise, it is one of the first characteristics that human resources personnel highlight in candidates for a job or in the company’s own employees. Did you know that 52% of HR managers consider soft skills to be more important than hard skills in candidates? For a company to function properly, it is essential to train and work on soft skills.

The importance of these skills derives from their influence on the work environment and working atmosphere. What does this mean? Well, possessing certain soft skills can facilitate teamwork and company results. In addition, having training in soft skills can help your employees to be more productive, improve performance, communicate effectively, avoid misunderstandings and internal conflicts, etc. Remember that these types of competencies can be innate or acquired through personal experience or skills training.

Soft skills most in demand by companies

As we already know, possessing certain soft skills can make a candidate stand out positively from others. The soft skills most relevant and valued by companies, both in selection processes and in their own employees are:

• Teamwork

The ability to work in a team is a prerequisite for recruiters in organisations and companies. When we share our ideas or experiences with other colleagues, the benefit for the company and the employees increases. Nowadays, it is practically impossible for a project to work with only one employee, as in all sectors the work of different specialists is required. When working in a team, the efforts of the team members are strengthened, the time for action is reduced and the efficiency of the results is increased.

If employees work as a team, it is much easier to reach a consensus with others without imposing their opinion. This soft skill contributes to the development of other skills such as creativity, communication and adaptability.

• Leadership

Leadership ability is one of the most important soft skills to become a good reference as a boss or team leader. This figure must be a person respected and admired by the other members of the team and capable of motivating the rest of the staff with respect and empathy. For a person to be considered a good leader, he or she must be able to take the reins of the project, making the right decisions at difficult moments.

• Assertiveness

When we talk about assertiveness, we refer to the ability to communicate clearly and directly, but without hurting or offending the other person. This skill is key for employees, as it is the way to express a complaint or a contrary opinion, but it is also useful to give recognition for a job well done. We can say that assertiveness stems from a calm, honest and balanced attitude and favours coexistence, social relations and, finally, a good working environment.

• Adaptability

This is the ability of people to adapt to new situations. The way a person adapts to changes in the work environment will determine the person’s ability and willingness to take on new challenges and projects. In addition, this can show whether the employee is able to reason critically and temper his or her temper in stressful situations or, on the contrary, acts on impulse.

A person who adapts and responds to change is able to find the source of problems, recognise the consequences and establish a strategy to help solve them. Every company values an employee who knows how to manage frustration when faced with a problem and find the best way to overcome it. Being able to find the source of problems, recognise the consequences and establish a strategy to help you solve them is essential to keep progressing professionally and not get stuck.

• Public speaking

Public speaking is the ability to speak fluently in front of an audience. Most people feel uncomfortable and have problems expressing themselves in front of an audience, which is completely normal. If the company has to present a project or hold a conference or event, the person speaking will be the face of the company. Public speaking training will help your employees to learn new techniques to express themselves correctly and to keep calm in the presentation.

• Coaching

The main objective of coaching is to achieve a company goal that has not been achieved by other methods. Coaching training improves business communication and optimises employee performance. It is applicable to all employees, regardless of their department or position. Thanks to coaching training your employees will be committed to the company’s mission.

• Creativity

These soft skills are a person’s ability to innovate and generate new ideas. The ability to come up with original solutions to different work-related problems that may arise. This will depend mainly on the person’s creative capacity. Currently, the demand for creative profiles by HR departments is booming. It is a skill that makes a difference and adds great value to the candidate’s profile. Being creative allows us to keep an open mind and be prepared for change, at any time or in any situation.

• Communication

The ability to maintain good communication skills, in which information can flow smoothly, is very useful in any job or position. Knowing how to express what we think, as well as being able to listen carefully in order to be able to interpret information and use it in a way that benefits our work, is something that most companies value.

• Resilience

It refers to the capacity of a material, mechanism or system to recover its initial state once the disturbance to which it has been subjected has ceased. Translated to the personal level, resilience is the ability to recover from adversity. It is an ability that we can train throughout our lives, as it is very important to face the adversities that work can entail.

• Learnability

The ability of people to learn from their experiences and apply what they have learned in their day-to-day lives in order to improve their performance is something that arouses enormous interest in Human Resources Departments when recruiting talent. Being willing to acquire new skills or improve existing ones is an important differential between candidates that will make it easier for recruiters to make a decision. This skill is not so much about what we have learned, but about the willingness to learn and update our knowledge as circumstances change.

Companies ask their employees to have these soft skills, but companies can also offer training to improve these skills. At Classgap for Enterprise we offer 100% customised soft skills courses. We have our “Virtual Classroom” platform, where the student and the teacher can have a fully two-way communication as if it were a face-to-face class.

Contact us today and don’t miss the opportunity to maximise the soft skills of both your employees and your company!