When you hire employees, especially Generation Z or millennials, you are making a significant investment in the future of your company.Developing staff is one of the smartest investments you can make.However, many companies underestimate this fact and often overlook something essential at Personnel Development : the basics.
If HR focuses solely on skills that are relevant to perform specific tasks of a particular job, then employees may not be adequately trained. Especially when it comes to employees moving into an unfamiliar role or younger employees who are new to the workplace, there may be a lack of basic skills. A CollegeBoard For example, a study shows that 26 percent of college graduates do not have sufficient organizational skills and are poor communicators. Therefore, it is best to ensure that your employees have essential soft skills before training for professional tasks. Whether the training is done by managers, team leaders, or anyone else, there are a number of digital tools that can be used to that you can use to bring your employees up to speed.
Employees and their skills are a company's most important asset.
The Three Most Basic Soft Skills & How to Promote Them
1. Time management
Of all the skills employees should have, time management is one of the most important, regardless of the position or task. Knowing how to prioritize, make a list of must-dos, define a workable schedule, delegate tasks – all of these lead to employees working efficiently and using their time productively. The best time managers are the ones who are never put off by deadlines: give them a deadline and they'll stick to it no matter what. They know how to focus on the most important tasks and limit the amount of time spent on the less important tasks. Especially in today's world, where project work dominates everyday work, good time management is important for every employee.
Promote time management
Given that time management varies greatly depending on the team and role, team leaders and direct managers should be involved in teaching this particular skill. Young employees who have just come out of university/college may master the ability to keep up with the allotted time for an exam, but need to learn how to transfer this skill into the work context. An effective approach: Implement routines and step-by-step goals for all tasks, similar to milestones. Managers and personnel developers will find useful help in the form of appropriate planning software that makes it easier to keep track of things.
Communication skills and empathy
Some employees will benefit from their strong interpersonal skills, especially if they are in person-intensive and communication-intensive roles. Whether employees are giving an important sales presentation or passing information on to an employee, interpersonal communication is always important to get your point across. The ability includes verbal, non-verbal, and listening skills to express emotions. and understand the other person. Nonverbal communication requires recognizing the intricacies of body language, eye contact, and gestures, and being able to look beyond traditional assumptions to understand what's really going on. For example, lack of eye contact is often misunderstood as dishonesty when it is actually shyness or nervousness.
Promote communication skills and empathy
The learning of interpersonal skills is an individual process, which ultimately matures above all through experience. Nevertheless, there are a few ways to coach employees in this regard. For example, you can raise awareness of how to listen effectively and recognize the different types of communicators. Everyone behaves differently in a conversation and reacts to a different listening and speaking style. It can help to adapt to the style of the interlocutor and use a similar vocabulary, questions convey interest. All these simple yet effective rules or tips can be given to your employee.
Who writes, stays: Writing is often portrayed only as part of communication skills. Most of us can read and most of us can write to know how to form sentences. But there's a huge gap between people who can write and people who are good at it. Being able to write well is one of the three most valuable skills for employers: 82% of employers want to hire new employees with strong written communication skills, according to recent research by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
3. Organizational skills
In the workplace, we often sense who is organized. Just a glance at the desk reveals a lot: some keep their workspace tidy and everything in its place; others keep a state of constant clutter. But organizational skills are far more than what meets the eye. They are usually accompanied by strong time management skills (see above). However, organizational skills are also a question of knowing all the tasks, the ability to imagine them, how to do them and which professional you may need to include. Organizing is crucial for any employee whose job involves supervising, managing, managing projects, or leading teams. Probably almost everyone is – in some form. And it's difficult for employees to to see or convey the big picture in terms of purpose and goals when they don't have the energy or ability to look away from the little things.
The trend towards remote working may challenge the need for a tidy desk for some – but it's the mentality that needs to be emphasized here. Remote teams definitely need to learn how to organize.
Promote organizational skills
Direct managers are often the ideal choice for organizational training, with support from experienced team members. Start training on how to create an exemplified routines and schedule. Employees need to know where they stand and when, what they need to do, and by when they need to get it done. Start with a daily schedule of the three or four most important tasks for a given day, and then increase the number of tasks over time as the tasks to be completed are mastered. Then, start adapting organizational methodologies to best suit the specific nature of a particular team or department. Just make sure your skills are taught consistently, regardless of personal leadership styles or functions. As teams become more cross-functional, it's important that your employees have a common language and skills.
Result: When you train these basic soft skills, you develop the people who will keep your business running and maneuver through a crisis: they know how to plan, communicate, and stay on top of the workflow, and they will feel confident enough in their skills to coach others in those skills as well.
Julia Herzog
Julia Herzog understands her target group: she has a degree in occupational psychology and worked in the field of HR for several years. Today, she is happy to be able to empower HR managers in the direction of 'New Work'.
