Two years of interacting through screens have brought a newfound focus on soft skills. Today, soft skills are not limited to communication skills, with the new normal the definition has changed and consequently new requirements have sprung up in order to be a good team player and deliver the work effectively.
Along with confidence and listening skills, emotional & social intelligence, conflict resolution, adaptability, dependability, self-motivation, etc are becoming must-have soft skills. Employees possessing these skills benefit the organization in many ways such as:-
- It builds the company’s reputation as customer experience improves, on top of it employees with integrity build an organization where stakeholders can put their confidence in
- It saves company costs as they do not need to employ different people for hard skills and soft skills, further it increases the efficiency
- It betters the leadership and teamwork, as employees are able to see through different points of view, ensuring decisions making is focussed on success of the organization
- It maintains a positive work environment and creates a work culture where employees feel heard and respected, not only does this help with retaining talent but also helps to attract the best talent.
As organizations recognize the advantages of employing candidates who possess above mentioned soft skills, the candidates too have to upskill and re-skill and change with the changing labor market. In 2017, Deloitte reported that by 2030, two-thirds of jobs will become soft-skill intensive. As per an article by India Today, “ 77% of employers believe that soft skills are as important as hard skills and 67% of HR managers will hire candidates with strong soft skills even if their hard skills are weak.”
This acts as a waking call for individuals to future-proof their careers by gaining the necessary set of skills. Possessing the most valued soft skills has many advantages from an individual’s point of view as well such as:-
- It increases self-confidence and helps them to undertake new initiatives, leading to professional growth
- It complements the hard skills, which translates into better job prospects
- Helps to build professional and personal relationships
- Makes individuals more efficient and organized, hence helping them save time and effectively manage work and life
- Individuals with strong soft skills are easily the ones who lead the group and make them stand out from others.
Soft skills have always been important to make organizations more humane, and now with technological advancement, soft skills are a way to give a human touch to day-to-day activity, building organizations with healthy work culture and happy employees.
