Fifty-eight percent of hiring managers surveyed in a LinkedIn study reported that their employees’ lack of soft skills, including communication, organization, teamwork, critical thinking, and social skills, limited business productivity.¹ And soft skills affect more than just productivity. Other consequences companies suffer when soft skills are lacking are:
Being deficient in adequate soft skills is common among employees today. “Recruiters and employment experts report a ‘soft skills gap’, especially among young workers more accustomed to texting than talking, that forces organizations to hire many candidates who fall short on interpersonal abilities,” stated the Society for Human Resource Management.5
Providing ongoing training is the best way business leaders can equip employees with the soft skills they need. A learning management system streamlines training, increasing its effectiveness.
While any type of soft skills training is better than none, training delivered through an LMS is especially supportive of employees obtaining new skills. This is because an eLearning system allows workers to self-pace training, reduces L&D costs for companies, expedites the training process, and gives learners constant access to training materials, which can increase engagement and knowledge retention.6
Related Reading: Increase Your eLearning ROI with Soft Skills Training.
Soft skills training doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. Simplify employee training by delivering soft skills courses online with an LMS. Here are three ways to do this:
1. Introduce one soft skill concept at a time -- The single-concept learning model, also known as the ‘thin-slicing’ learning model, calls for each eLearning lesson to introduce just one concept to improve knowledge retention.
Consider a typical online soft skills course on communication that includes many concepts. There’s a lot for learners to focus on, and as they move through the lesson they may lose ideas introduced earlier in the course. Training can be more potent when course information is focused on one only concept per learning encounter.7 LMS learning path functionality and content management features enable administrators to distribute training according to the single-concept model.
2. Foster creativity with whiteboards -- LMS whiteboards are an ideal tool for teaching employees to be more creative. They encourage collaboration by enabling workers to expand on each other’s ideas with notes, sketches and diagrams. This can be a welcome change from written communication and can strengthen an employee’s ability to be innovative.
“Twenty-seven percent of participants in a Chamber of Commerce report said they have trouble employing people with good ‘soft skills’, which include personal responsibility, communication and an ability to work well with others.” -- Soft Skills Bootcamp 8
Companies that prioritize soft skills training often experience an increase in productivity, R&D capabilities and workforce collaboration and communication. Organizations that deliver this training through an LMS will have lower training costs, a quicker training process for employees and increased engagement.
References:
https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/trends-and-research/2016/most-indemand-soft-skills.
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0416/pages/hrs-hard-challenge-when-employees-lack-soft-skills.aspx/
https://www.adeccousa.com/about-adecco-staffing/newsroom/press-releases/lack-of-soft-skills-2013/.
https://softskillshq.com/pages/the-lack-of-soft-skills.
Christopher Pappas. The to 8 benefits of using learning management systems. https://elearningindustry.com/top-8-benefits-of-using-learning-management-systems.
7. eLearning Industry. Soft skills training: how to make eLearning work for enhancing soft skills training. https://elearningindustry.com/soft-skills-training-make-elearning-work-enhancing-soft-skills.