Soft And Hard Skills: How To Build A Workforce With Essential Skillsets

Toward personal and professional development

The Fall 2023 hiring spree has accelerated and is being pushed forward by a resilient job market, where the unemployment rate consistently lies below 4%, according to JP Morgan. This strong labor market has resulted in extra work for recruiters and hiring managers who are responsible for reviewing hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of applications for open positions.

When beginning the hiring process, it is important to select potential candidates who already possess the people skills needed to align with your workplace culture and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) initiatives. 

However, you should also recognize that candidates, regardless of their background, will need to hone their technical skills to adapt to your workplace. These employability characteristics are often known as “soft” and “hard” skills, which set apart interpersonal characteristics and the knowledge obtained through previous jobs and education. Both skills can be developed over a period of time, through life experience, education and job training.  

To manage a remote workforce, hiring managers must carefully select employees who have the soft skills to work independently and efficiently, and employers must provide the necessary materials and technology to ensure both new and experienced employees can nurture their hard skills as they grow in their position. 

Finding Employees with the Right Soft Skills

Forbes placed effective communication as the most desirable soft skill in 2023, characterized by active listening, verbal, nonverbal and written communication, and presentation skills. Soft skills must be continually practiced and may not come easily to everyone. While innate to some, many soft skills are learned at school and home, and from social development. 

Time management is a great example – every person must manage tasks and deadlines from early childhood through adulthood. Potential candidates will all have their strengths and weaknesses in various soft skills, but they can certainly improve over time. 

Talent mobility, a talent development strategy, begins as early as the hiring process. Hiring managers should look for eager candidates who can see themselves succeeding in the role and can imagine a future of growth at the company. 

Once your top candidates have accepted the position, review internal onboarding processes to ensure they are smoothly onboarded and integrated into the team. Managers take on the task of determining the existing skill sets of their employees and where their interests lie, as a point to begin creating connections among the team. Introduce your new employees to as many team members as possible, initiate team-building exercises, and be sure to provide background on the company from the ground up. With the foundational network and knowledge laid, managers can help new employees begin fostering and building upon the hard skills required in the position. 

Fostering the Hard Skills

Company-wide, make it known that you are invested in your employee goals and their future. Be open and personal with your team; ask each person where their passions exist inside and outside of work. Setting time aside to meet with employees individually opens an opportunity for a deeper connection. You might discover that a team member has strengths that could better fit another department with an open position, aiding internal recruitment initiatives. 

Or, you may learn that an employee seeks additional training or courses. Additionally, by annually reviewing training materials and conducting employee surveys, managers can identify areas for improvement. Ask employees how they work best, for example, do they have a device preference? Allowing employees to work with their personal devices and reimbursing them for business use is one method of meeting employees where they’re already comfortable and avoiding shipping a company device with an unfamiliar interface. 

Lastly, managers can implement a performance management program to help employees stay motivated to reach their individual goals while staying aligned with the company’s overarching goals. It might look something like this:
 

1. Individual team members set their own strategies, goals and metrics every six months
2. Managers review the metrics and align as necessary with company goals
3. When six months have passed, employees conduct a self-assessment and managers provide feedback
4. At the end of the year, each team member is reviewed by a committee who will provide a performance rating along with developmental feedback 

Soft and hard skills rely heavily on direct, open lines of communication and are not mutually exclusive, but rather are always conjoined, directly strengthening the other.

Creating a Workplace that Prioritizes Employee Needs

Investing in employees means asking for feedback and actually listening to their needs. HR leaders can deploy surveys to new and experienced employees to elicit feedback on how to enhance onboarding initiatives and skill-building. Surveys should target both soft and hard skills, asking employees: “Do you believe you have an open line of communication with your manager?” and/or “Do you feel that any additional training is needed to help you perform your job efficiently?” 

In these surveys, companies can expect a desire for professional growth, with 94% of employees saying that they would stay with an employer invested in their development, according to a 2019 LinkedIn Workforce Learning Report. Professional growth can take the form of education incentives and networking opportunities. Some companies offer stipends to employees looking to further their education. Even if your company cannot offer this incentive, look to continue employee learning by encouraging attendance at local networking chapters, or create groups internally to share knowledge and discuss industry-related topics regularly.

Other employees may just desire a more feasible work-life balance, through hybrid work or flexible hours to accommodate personal schedules, such as a child’s school pick-up. Personal health and wellbeing should never be ignored. Providing access to mental health care and wellbeing resources, or a company file that provides free resources in the areas where employees reside, is not only a great benefit to your employees, increasing retention, but is also attractive to top talent during recruitment phases. 

From your newest employee to your most senior, soft and hard skills are built off relentless support for their personal and professional development. 

Jessica Chronchio is VP of People Operations at Motus.