How to develop soft skills in the workplace with an LMS

Soft skills are some of the most crucial skills employees bring to the workplace every day. If you’re looking to help your employees develop soft skills, a soft skills LMS is just what you need to get the job done efficiently and effectively.

Soft skills are incredibly valuable to both companies and employees, and their importance is on the rise. In fact, a recent survey of various employers found that 73% of companies value soft skills more than ever. “Soft” might not even be the best word to describe skills that can make that much of an impact. That’s why we also like to refer to them as “power” skills.

These skills are so powerful, in fact, that 89% of failed hires can be traced back to a lack of soft skills. Employees who possess in-demand soft skills like communication, time management, and critical thinking are more than just people who get work done and keep projects moving. They’re the people who make coming to work a positive experience for everyone, and they can have a ripple effect on your company's culture and productivity.

As you can see, hiring for and internally developing employee soft skills should be at the top of your priority list for success. That’s why in this article, we’ll be covering:

• Top examples of soft skills in the workplace
• Key ways to develop soft skills
• Strategies for how can someone develop or strengthen their soft skills

But before we help you harness the power of soft skills, let’s start by giving you some more examples of valuable soft skills you can include in your training.

Examples of soft skills in the workplace

Soft skills take on many forms, and though they’re vital to your success, they’re also trickier to measure and harder to identify in the hiring process. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attempt to clarify which soft skills are most essential to your workplace.

Here’s a list of a few essential soft skills that can benefit virtually every industry:

• Creativity
• Problem-solving
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Adaptability
• Organization

But power skills aren’t just important for your employees they’re also essential for your leadership team. One study found that employees who worked for emotionally intelligent managers were happier and more innovative. On the flip side, almost three-quarters of employees with managers who possessed little emotional intelligence had negative sentiments about their workplace.

Now that you’ve seen some examples of soft skills, let’s get to the reason you opened this blog in the first place – how to develop soft skills in your company.

How can someone develop or strengthen their soft skills?

We know that soft skills can be learned, but how can someone develop or strengthen their soft skills?

One of the most effective ways to develop soft skills is to leverage a soft skill LMS in your company’s key operations. By implementing a strong strategy supported by key tools to execute your soft skills training, you’ll set up your employees and your organization for long-term success. Here are four ways to develop soft skills and embed soft skill development into your culture:

Develop a mentorship program

How can someone develop or strengthen their soft skills without support or a role model to show them the way? Connect new employees with seasoned professionals you know exemplify the soft skills you value. This helps your employees see soft skills in action from day one.

Encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations

Collaboration is a soft skill in itself, so give people the opportunity to put it into practice! Collaborating with co-workers who have different areas of expertise builds empathy, strengthens communication, and develops problem-solving skills. Your employees will authentically learn from each other as they see other examples of soft skills being applied in collaborative settings.

Reward high performance in soft skills

You likely reward performance to drive achievement in areas like sales, so why not incentivize gains in soft skills too? Show employees you value soft skills as much as technical skills by giving recognition to those who have shown exemplary performance and improvement.

Inspire continuous learning with a strategic LMS

Though many power skills are innate, power skills can also be taught, but only if your organization prioritizes continuously developing them. A robust LMS can help support you in training your team to apply soft skills at work on an ongoing basis, ensuring that your employees are constantly improving their approach and adding value to those that surround them.

And you don’t need to be an expert content creator to deploy a professional soft skill LMS. With support from an experienced team, you can implement an LMS for soft-skill building through either turn-key training or custom training that can be tailored to your organization, specific departments, or unique learner needs.

Launch your soft skills LMS with Unboxed

There are so many reasons to implement a learning and development program aimed at improving soft skills in the workplace. Soft skills can help your team:

• Improve collaboration and connectivity
• Enhance the customer experience
• Increase productivity and even profitability

If you’re looking for the best soft skills LMS and an experienced learning and development team who will be there to ensure your training meets your needs, look no further than Unboxed.

Unboxed will be there to help drive your organizational goals forward through strategic programs that ensure your team never stops learning, adapting, and succeeding. Your company will become a better place to work, and your employees will continually improve their soft skills.

Ready to see it in action? Request a demo of Unboxed today!