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Guest Blog: Benefits of Soft Skills Training for Employees – Why Organisations Should Invest In It

This is a guest blog by Suman Agarwal – Co-founder & Director of Image Consulting Business Institute.

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While technical skills help you perform in your domain, soft skills help you do the same job much more efficiently. Whether working with a team, resolving conflicts, making important decisions or even communicating with people in a business setting – soft skills help professionals present the best and the most confident versions of themselves.

There are many benefits of soft skills training for employees as it equips them with the confidence to communicate, speak in public, resolve challenges, and take advantage of all growth opportunities. But most importantly, the benefits of soft skills training are organisation-wide. Let’s understand how.

Increased Productivity

One very important aspect of soft skills training for employees is communication skills. Soft skills training courses are designed to teach professionals both listening and speaking skills, which makes communication in the workplace clear, quick, and error-free. This can increase employees’ efficiency. For example, active listening would help them grasp concepts and ideas quickly and complete tasks efficiently, thus increasing their overall productivity.

Improved Customer Communication

Even though customers and clients do business with the organisations, it’s the employees who represent the company. Soft skills training would not only help your employees maintain a positive and pleasant attitude with customers, but it would also help them communicate and resolve issues efficiently. This can help your business critically in retaining existing customers as well as attracting new ones. In fact, 68% of consumers say that they would pay more for products and services from a brand that offers good customer service experiences.

Stronger Leadership

Leadership is a critical skill that is not limited to managers and team leads. Every employee must exhibit strong leadership skills when it comes to their own work and collaborating with others. And the biggest benefit of soft skills training is that it enables professionals to work effectively in teams, delegate better, give feedback, accept feedback, and motivate each other to achieve organisational goals. It helps professionals work as a unit and be a leader at the same time, without a formal title of the leader.

Improved Employee Retention

76% of millennials believe professional development opportunities are one of the most important aspects of company culture. Professional development opportunities directly impact employee satisfaction. Therefore, if you invest in upgrading your employees’ skill sets, they are more likely to not just stay with you but also become loyal to the company. This can help you in saving additional costs for replacing old employees and reinvesting in technical and domain training.

Improved Adaptability

After the global pandemic, we observed that the flexible organisations were able to stand strong in the changing times and economy, while the ones who couldn’t adapt to the changes had to shut their doors permanently. Therefore, adaptability has become more important than ever.

With personal skills training, employees become resilient, critical thinkers, good problem-solvers, and flexible to change, even when the times are tough. This can help them act and think clearly if challenging situations present themselves again.

Excellent Organisation-Wide Communication

Organisational communication isn’t just the way we speak, but it also includes choosing the right words, picking non-verbal cues, communicating politely, and expressing better in concise writing. This can help both the managers as well the team members improve trust and communication between them dramatically. This can lead to better understanding when it comes to tasks and projects, clarity in terms of expectations, and better overall communication in the organisation.

Higher Emotional Intelligence in Leaders

Emotional intelligence involves being able to identify emotions, understanding them, showing empathy, and correctly managing people’s feelings. This skill is critical in managers since it helps them manage stressful situations calmly, be more understanding and considerate, and accordingly give or receive feedback. And one of the most important benefits of soft skills training is that it imparts this skill to professionals. As a result, they can better regulate their emotions at work, create a good work-life balance for themselves and others, and ensure good mental health.

Measuring and teaching soft skills can be challenging, especially in workplaces with hundreds of employees working together. Therefore, it is important to take expert help and chart out a soft skills development program.

Do your research and find out the best soft skills training courses that can work well for your employees. Moreover, make sure to communicate the importance of the same to the participating professionals so that they can make the best of the training program.

Author Bio:

Suman Agarwal is an award-winning image management professional. She has helped students, home-makers, women on sabbatical as well as people seeking second career alternatives to explore Image Management and Soft Skill Training as a vibrant professional choice. She frequently writes blog posts about the urgent need of image consulting professionals and soft skill trainers in the 21st century and loves guiding people in exploring lucrative career options.

Write to her at [email protected] to seek advanced career guidance.