Even though compliance training accounts for more than half of an employee training program, your program should still have room for soft skill training topics. These soft skills are even more critical to business outcomes, particularly long-term success.
In this blog, let’s talk about which soft skill training topics should be part of your L&D program, as well as effective delivery and implementation strategies.
5 Soft Skill Training Topics Your L&D Program Should Include
#1: Adaptability
Adaptability is the first soft skill training topic for employees to incorporate into your training program.
Why this matters
Adaptability and flexibility in new situations affect all aspects of your workplace interactions.
- Leaders can assist their teams more effectively: Adaptable leaders can lead their teams through times of difficulty and chaos.
- Employees are better suited to produce results through change: If your teams are willing to adapt to changes, they can quickly achieve their goals.
- Everyone can acknowledge changes: Your employees need to learn to recognize the difference rather than resist it.
What good adaptability looks like
Good adaptability training should be quick and continuous. Adaptability is a skill your employees need right now, but learning to be adaptable is not a one-time event. As a result, implementation is dependent on:
- Speed
- Relevance
- Predictions
- Engagement
Most notably, you need bite-sized data in the form of microlearning or something similar. Using solutions such as video content is an excellent way to generate immediate engagement. According to research conducted by Forrester Research Company, 75% of learners are more likely to watch videos than to read print.
Below is one of the adaptability courses from One QBE, produced by F.Learning. In this video, One QBE trains their employee on how to use communication tools while working online. F.Learning suggested using animation to make the knowledge more understandable and friendly to MNC’s employees:
#2: Teamwork
Teamwork is the second soft skill training topic for employees to incorporate into your training program.
Teamwork has always been essential. With companies working remotely and desperately trying to optimize, the roles of empathy, active listening, and emotional intelligence are more important than ever. Furthermore, a focus on teamwork during the training stage is required to ensure that these skills are adjusted to fit the actual environment.
Why this matters
Recently, business communication channels such as Slack have proven to help keep teams together. Still, they will never replace the communication skills of people who use them.
In terms of teamwork, business collaboration software can only help your team collaborate if people talk to each other. Remember that teamwork training goes beyond simply teaching them how to use the software.
What good teamwork looks like
Good teamwork and collaboration differ significantly today than even a year ago. If you want to incorporate the teamwork skill into your training program, you should include the following topics:
- Limiting the number of tools you use and training people.
- Discovering new ways to check in.
- Reassess communication among your organization gradually in view of changes as they occur.
#3: Critical thinking and problem solving
The third soft skill training topic for employees to incorporate into your training program is critical thinking and problem-solving. Better decision-making is among the many advantages of improving your critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Why this matters
Critical thinking and problem-solving have a lot in common regarding soft skills. These abilities give your employees more freedom and trust in their own decisions. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills also assist your employees in accepting and welcoming new challenges.
For example, the average employee will constantly seek assistance or fail to solve problems independently. The goal of improving critical thinking and problem-solving skills is for your employees to be able to come up with answers on the run and remain comfortable doing so.
What good critical thinking and problem-solving look like
Problem-solving and critical thinking skills are the most difficult skills to train, but they are highly demanded. You can relieve this deficiency by giving your employees more educational experiences that are relevant to their daily lives:
- When faced with budget cuts or time constraints, a marketing manager must prioritize their projects.
- Present a client success representative with a one-of-a-kind, out-of-the-ordinary situation.
- Request an operations manager to quickly develop and scale a new process to provide clients a unique service.
If you are looking for some tips to improve your employees’ critical thinking skills, check out this video for more information.
#4: Persuasion
Persuasion is employees’ fourth soft skill training topic to incorporate into your training program. Like so many other soft skills mentioned, a strong persuasion skill is highly demanded. As a result, persuasion training at all levels is critical to putting power behind your efforts in 2022.
Why this matters
After all, poor persuasion skills equate to diminishing profits on the sales floor. However, the significance of persuasion is far-reaching.
It is well known, for example, that people leave poor managers rather than jobs. If your managers cannot persuade their employees, they will most likely resort to far less pleasant forms of leadership.
What a good persuasion skill looks like
Persuasion can take many forms, but good persuasion training will focus on interpersonal skills such as listening and communication. The training aims to help your staff feel included in decision-making rather than forced to make a decision. Therefore, a good persuasion training program should bring benefits such as:
- Overcoming buyer rejection
- Improving management-team relationships
- Improving overall workplace behavior by encouraging self-expression
- Finally, encouraging the previously mentioned adaptability and resilience
#5: Communication skill
Communication is the 5th soft skill training topic for employees to incorporate into your training program.
We are more connected than ever before. Thanks to messaging apps and instant messages, communication is faster than ever. Despite this, the lack of effective internal and external communication still causes many workplace problems.
Why it matters
Ninety-two percent of team members say they frequently have to repeat information to two or more people within their organization.
This communication issue affects your clients and customers as well. According to a survey by project.co, over 95% of customers and clients believe their companies should improve their communication and project management.
What a good communication skill looks like
Indeed cited the following as the top communication skills that employees should work on:
- Listening actively
- Choosing the best mode of communication
- Using friendliness and approachability in communication
- Displaying self-assurance
- Effective feedback distribution
- Being concise and clear
- Empathy and respect in communication
- Recognizing nonverbal cues
- Responding within a reasonable time frame
Recommend reading:
Final words
Soft skill training topics can determine the success or failure of your company’s training program. With rapid technological innovation, it is more important to incorporate soft skills into your training program and use these topics.
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