Is your company looking for ways to improve productivity, increase profitability, and maintain its competitive edge in 2022? Do you want to address the skills gap by improving your hiring practices and upskilling your staff? Are you interested in revitalizing your employee training soft skills program this year but unsure where to begin?
If any of this sounds familiar, this guide can help you achieve your 2022 training and hiring goals. Below, we outline several essential soft skills you should hire and train for.
Most traditional training and screening processes focus on technical aptitudes. While these job-specific abilities are vital to an employee’s success, soft skills are equally important. However, many businesses neglect to screen for these soft skills during their hiring and rarely address them with soft skills employee training. The results are poor team chemistry, high turnover, and lost productivity.
Have you been encountering some of these pain points? If so, we recommend addressing the following soft skills in your hiring and training strategies.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence refers to a person’s ability to identify, understand, evaluate, and manage emotions, both their own and those of others.
Adequate emotional intelligence is unquestionably one of the most valuable soft skills every employee must possess. Individuals in leadership positions must possess a high level of emotional intelligence. They must be receptive to the emotions of others and know how to use their own emotions productively.
Employees with high emotional intelligence are able to interact with coworkers more effectively. They can collaborate better, are able to navigate inevitable moments of workplace friction, and can contribute to an inclusive work environment.
Emotional intelligence has a strong connection to job performance. According to recent data, 9 out of 10 top performers possess above-average levels of emotional intelligence.
Change Management
If the challenges of the last few years taught us anything, organizational agility is vital to business continuity. During the pandemic, businesses around the globe had to pivot rapidly to remain operational. Many were unable to effectively do so and had to shut their doors.
While it is impossible to predict when the next major threat to business continuity will arise or what it will be, there are steps you can take to prepare — one way is to equip your organizational leaders with change management skills.
Change management refers to helping team members navigate major organizational changes. These changes may include implementing new customer relationship management software, transitioning to a hybrid work model, restructuring departments within the company, or other evolutions.
Any major change can be stressful and difficult to navigate. However, leaders with change management skills are able to address employee fears, troubleshoot problems on the fly, and make the entire process less stressful.
Negotiation Skills
Your soft skills employee training program and applicant screening tactics should also gauge negotiation proficiency. Even non-sales employees need strong negotiation skills.
Employees who are proficient at negotiating are able to communicate their perspectives when collaborating with other staff members. They can also engage in dynamic problem solving, navigate friction in the workplace, and persuade others to chip in and do their part when working on group projects.
Reasoning Ability
No soft skills employee training strategy is complete unless it covers topics related to reasoning ability. Employees with strong reasoning skills are able to analyze possible solutions when faced with workplace problems. They can use different reasoning and deductive strategies to choose the most pragmatic solution.
Employees with good reasoning skills can work well both as part of a team and independently. They are able to overcome day-to-day challenges that might otherwise impede productivity and can assist the organization as it navigates significant business hurdles.
How eSkill Can Help You Improve Employee Skills with Training
If you want to improve employee skills with training or more effectively screen new hires for valuable soft skills, you need to leverage skills tests.
Many soft skills tests are available, including ones related to the abilities and aptitudes outlined above. A few such examples include Emotional Intelligence, Reasoning Ability, Leadership and Change Management skills tests.
Each skills test includes various questions in formats such as multiple-choice, true/false, and select-all-that-apply. When participants complete their assigned skills tests, their performance results are immediately viewable via an online administrative dashboard. This dashboard allows your team to review topic-by-topic results to identify each test taker’s strengths and weaknesses.
Would you like to learn more about the benefits of using skills testing for soft skills employee training? Contact us to request a demo.