The connection between continuing education in soft skills and employee retention has been proven by a new report from the Consumer Technology Association about the future of work. A large majority of business leaders, 74 percent, said in the report that they consider continuing education in soft skills to be important for employee retention.
It is well known that continuing education of any type is beneficial to employee retention, because employees value professional development and the development of new skills as their career progresses. While there may be a few employees out there that like doing the same thing every single day, most employees will see stagnation as a signal that it might be time to move on.
In the report, however, soft skills training was seen as one of the top two employee benefits over the next five years. Why soft skills?
The Impact of Soft Skills Training
In a recent LinkedIn survey, the majority of employers said that soft skills were more important than technical skills for employees to develop, particularly communication, leadership, collaboration, and time management. All the technical or hard skills in the world will not make an effective employee if they can’t interact well with others and manage their time so that they are productive in their work.
Job satisfaction can increase when employees take soft skills courses.
Besides, career training and college courses are typically focused on the hard skills needed in the workplace. Soft skills, however, are not similarly taught. This means that employees who haven’t developed soft skills naturally through their life experiences will be deficient in them when they enter the workplace or take a particular job.
Learning soft skills can also make employees more satisfied in their jobs. When employees can interact with others well and accomplish their goals with better time management, they will feel happier in their jobs and be more likely to stay. Conflicts and ineffective work habits, on the other hand, may make employees feel that they are not working in the right place, and they may decide to try a new opportunity even though the same problems are likely to follow them there.
The Benefits of Soft Skills Courses
Taking soft skills courses boosts those skills faster than waiting for life experience to teach you what you need to know. The classroom setting can address common difficulties and offer best practices for improvement. Additionally, having an instructor and other students with which to share ideas and from whom to get input puts continuing education courses far above life experience or even a mentoring relationship, which is only as helpful as the mentor’s own experiences.
Besides the clear benefits continuing education courses in soft skills can offer to employees, they are also valuable for employers to offer their workers as a clear indication that they value their employees and want to provide for them in the best possible way. View open courses to see what soft skills training CCSU offers and how your employees can benefit.