Soft Skills Training: What to Include and Best Practices

Posted on by Catherine Fitzgerald B.A. M.A. PGDip

Soft skills training teaches employees interpersonal skills to navigate workplace relationships and environments effectively.

Unlike hard skills, which tend to be more technical, soft skills are personal attributes and abilities that influence how well employees interact, communicate, lead, and succeed in the workplace.

Definitions

Some common soft skills include:

  • Communication skills: verbal, nonverbal, written, listening.
  • People skills: empathy, positivity, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution.
  • Leadership skills: motivating others, delegating, problem-solving.
  • Teamwork skills: collaboration, cooperation, accountability.
  • Work ethic: punctuality, reliability, patience, adaptability.

Why Identifying Best Practices Is Essential

When implementing soft skills training, organizations must identify best practices to maximize training effectiveness. Best practices may include:

  • Evaluating organizational needs through surveys and observation.
  • Using a blended training approach with online, in-person and on-the-job components.
  • Creating opportunities for employees to practice new skills.
  • Providing ongoing coaching and feedback.
  • Measuring training outcomes and making adjustments as needed.

Mastering soft skills is essential. Following best practices helps ensure that soft skills training is tailored, impactful, and produces real improvements in workplace performance and culture.

Top 7 Soft Skills Training Used in the Workplace

Here are some of the most common and valuable soft skills training programs utilized in the workplace:

Communication Skills Training

Examples: Active listening, delivering effective presentations, and writing straightforward emails.

Emotional Intelligence Training

Examples: Self-awareness, empathy, and managing emotions productively.

Teamwork Skills Training

Examples: Establishing team goals, collaborative problem-solving, and giving and receiving feedback.

Leadership Skills Training

Examples: Coaching, delegating, conflict resolution, strategic thinking.

Customer Service Skills Training

Examples: Building rapport, addressing complaints effectively, exceeding expectations.

Diversity and Inclusion Training

Examples: Mitigating unconscious bias, cross-cultural communication, disability awareness.

Time Management Skills Training

Examples: Prioritizing, overcoming procrastination, managing distractions, setting SMART goals.

5 Organizational Challenges Targeted by Soft Skills Training

Here are five common organizational challenges that strategic soft skills training aims to address:

  • Poor communication leads to misunderstandings, inefficiencies, and minimizing interpersonal conflicts. Communication skills training helps improve listening, speaking, writing, and presentation abilities. This is something we frequently hear from clients with teamwork training needs.
  • Lack of leadership results in a lack of direction, motivation, and accountability. Leadership training builds skills for effectively guiding, motivating, and developing teams.
  • Weak teamwork causes issues like lack of collaboration, silos, and poor project outcomes. Teamwork training facilitates cooperation, problem-solving, and productive team dynamics.
  • Low emotional intelligence manifests in unproductive conflicts, disconnection, and lack of empathy. EI training builds self-awareness, compassion, and relationship management.
  • Unconscious bias leads to exclusive cultures and missed opportunities for diversity and inclusion. Bias mitigation training raises awareness of blind spots and builds inclusion.

Soft skills training provides employees the interpersonal abilities to navigate workplace relationships, lead productive teams, communicate effectively, and ultimately create more positive and successful organizational cultures.

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