While some new hires join your team as the perfect candidate for their role, others can benefit from some form of skills training to meet their full potential. Employers utilize many different types of training in the workspace and beyond to enhance their employees’ hard and soft skills. These skills prove beneficial to both the wellness of the employees and that of the business.
Hard skills are generally known as learned, practiced skills acquired through professional training or apprenticeship. These can include job-specific tasks, such as obtaining a specific degree, official training on a specific procedure, or earning a certification of a specific skill. Many examples of hard skills require time, investment, and practice to master, and you can track improvement fairly easily.
Soft skills include traits more often attributed to work ethic and daily operations within a business than with the physical job itself. They revolve around the way a person assesses, reacts to, and handles a problem or person. It is vital to the efficiency and success of any company to do what they can to ensure practical soft skills training throughout its employee base.
What is skills training?
Soft skills training aims to build or improve teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving skills—both in the workplace and in everyday life. Even attributes that seem like less of a skill and more of a personality trait, such as empathy and intrapersonal communication, can be improved. You can present this type of training in several different forms, including group training, one-on-one coaching, online courses, and even virtually.
The importance of soft skills in the workplace
Soft skills training plays a critical role in any business. Businesses must operate like smooth and well-oiled machines, with moving parts and interconnected pieces.
Employee traits such as communication and reliability are vital to achieving the highest quality of work output. Soft skills are also known as people skills, encompassing a group of traits that most people develop as they grow up and join the professional world. While every employee is different, it’s crucial to ensure a certain standard of etiquette across your company to provide the highest level of service to your customers.
Examples of soft skills in the workplace are creative thinking, effective time management, and the ability to work well in a team environment. These are just as important as technical skills or hard skills to your workplace’s proper function.
Communication and teamwork are fundamental to the success of your business, as you must rely on the work of others to build your brand. As much as you may want to, most employers are unable to address customer concerns themselves, leaving this important responsibility in the hands of those representing your brand. Customer satisfaction remains deeply rooted in the soft skills ability of your public-facing employees.
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Why companies need a skills training program
Few candidates applying for or actively performing a role are perfect. Even if they did an ideal job in their old position, every company flows differently and utilizes various software and schedules. By establishing a company-wide skills training program, you can enable high-quality, consistent training across your entire workforce, allowing your company to run the way you’d like it to run. You only need minimal effort for maximum impact, as Lessonly is one of the most trusted sources for corporate skills training programs.
A great soft skills training program can also enhance nearly every aspect of your employees’ interactions with customers, prospects, and teammates. In fact, customers report higher satisfaction when they know they’ll experience consistent customer service.
Examples of skills training
Onboarding training, role-playing, and online training are all skills training examples. There are many options for companies to choose from when it comes to skills training. You will need to consider factors such as time commitment, cost, and training location.
Employees typically undergo onboarding training when they start working at your company. This training is necessary to ensure that your new hires are on the same page with your existing staff. It also provides an opportunity to train your new hires in the fundamental aspects of their new job, such as communication software, company values, and chain of command. Onboarding training is one of the examples of skills training that your employees can perform in both an online and in-person environment and occasionally in a hybrid format.
Role-playing with a training representative is one of the most obvious soft skills training examples. Using it can highlight and enhance both interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills. This method trains your employees to put themselves in the shoes of a customer or coworker and assess the situation from a more informed perspective. This training is applicable across your workforce. Managers, sales representatives, and customer service representatives alike can benefit from a higher understanding of situational awareness and communication.
Deliver soft skills training online
When it comes to managing your business and employees, efficiency and effectiveness are at the top of your to-do list. Utilizing skills development training courses and assessments are your best bet to ensure consistent training outcomes across your workforce. Learn how organizations guide their teams to the resources and training they need to hone essential soft skills 2.3x faster with Lessonly by Seismic. Jump into a free training lesson to see how.
