What are Soft skills
Soft skills are those skills that are outside a persons job description. They can include personality characteristics, including character, ethics, and attitudes. The include interpersonal skills such as written and verbal communication, sales and presentation skills, and leadership skills. They include time and resource management skills including drive, focus, decision making, planning, execution, dealing with task overload as well as self and team evaluation and improvement.
Who benefits from soft skill training
Everyone in the organization benefits from these skills. There was a time when all that was necessary in a profession was to be skilled in it. Those times are in the past. Studies have shown that doctors with better interpersonal skills are sued less (without respect to their technical skills) Sales people who are more liked out produce more knowledgeable counterparts and science, engineering and I.T. professionals with well developed soft skills get farther in organizations than equally or greater skilled associates who lack good soft skills.
Businesses need professionals who are able to interact with other departments and to communicate effectively with outside organizations. They need people who are self starters, plan, execute, adapt to change and learn from their experiences. They need people who can manage resources and time and bring projects in successfully and on time in spite of obstacles, deadlines and various external pressures.
How can you get the greatest benefit from soft skills training
avoid the plan of the month mentality
train good people
know your needs
if you have hr or development departments, use them, they
usually are more up on what works than others in the
organization.
Choose a small group to "test" the
training on. If they produce measurable results in a
reasonable time, role the training out to more departments.
have management be involved and specifically beyond just paying
for it, they need to participate
look to outside training organizations like leading concepts
How can you measure the benefits of soft skills training
stock holders and management are both cost aware. many demand tangible return on their training dollars. It is unfortunate the these are difficult to measure. (but not impossible). In the case of large investments may be appropriate to engage an outside consulting firm to prepare a scientific analysis of training and results. This can be costly. I will attempt to outline a more basic but still effective approach.
Determine the behaviors you are wanting to improve in the
workforce
(example planning, execution and dealing with task overload)
carve out a segment of the workforce (a department for example)
(example accounting dept)
measure the present behavior in the area you are desiring to
improve
(example - financial statements as well regulatory forms are
delivered late 18% of the time over the last year, and when on
time there is a last minute rush frequently accompanied by
increase in overtime expense just prior to a deadline)
Involve the department in the discussions.
frequently management believes that the problem is one thing
(poor planning on the part of the department) and the department
believes that it is another (management dumping additional
requirements on it shortly before a due date ie. task overload).
Upon agreement (if possible) as to the needs, discuss them
several providers, check references and find a provider that can
adequately address your specific needs. Solicit
appropriate guarantees and financial incentives or penalties.
Use questions like:
how much time will this
save?, translate time to money by multiplying peoples hourly
rates times the hours saved. (remember overtime issues)
how much money will be saved
what is the financial impact of being more efficient
what is the savings in reducing rework, reducing scrap (waste of
any type)
what is the impact of delivering products to external customers
on time (or internal customers like engineering delivering a
quote to sales staff on time)
Send the group to training
as part of training have the group list what they perceive as
the tangible benefits of the soft skill training ie. if you
improved you planning, teamwork skills what effect would
it have on product delivery.
After training measure the results at several time points
At 1 week (or sooner) determine learner satisfaction
a little further out determine retention of key concepts learned.
Provide reinforcement necessary to see that the concepts
retained. One of the biggest reasons for failure of training
programs is the attitude that one exposure to the material will
fix the problem forever. Most people need to
practice a behavior between 21 and 90 days before it becomes a
habit, and need occasional redirection after that.
Consider the last time you attempted to go on a diet or
implement an exercise program. One workout probably did not
permanently fix the problem. Have the training company provide
some kind of continuing follow-up for an appropriate time
period.
After about 1 month and then ongoing start determining the
impact to the business. Calculate the dollars or time
saved based on the criteria that was established prior to the
training. Continue this as long as appropriate, 90 days is
minimum and 1 year would be more reasonable. What are the
annualized financial benefits?
What soft skills training should you consider.
The answer here is what ever matches your needs. We
would like to propose the following as being very effective
in improving the soft skills of many organizations.
Ranger Teams,
Ranger Communication and Ranger
Leadership form the core of a training program that provides
comprehensive soft skills training. The trainings address
critical business skills including planning, teamwork,
leadership, execution, communication, decision making,
interpersonal relationships, evaluation and organizational
improvement. In Ranger Rally Points
Supervisors receive leadership training in a number of insightful,
unique and fun aspects of team effectiveness. We want to inspire and educate a small
to medium size groups in a partial day session. Click the links
above for more details.