Investing in soft skills gets hard results

Training has lost out in the recession but firms may lose leaders if they don't teach good people skills. Photo / Thinkstock

Companies may be losing money and good staff due to their under-investment in training people in the art of soft skills, says Ronil Singh of recruitment firm Robert Half Finance.

Singh says while people generally pick up soft skills as they progress into adulthood, he believes they need to be developed further to help people rise up the ladder and for companies to be more successful.

"You don't really get taught how to do commercial negotiations, learn how to influence people, or how to deal with different personalities at university - these are the skill sets that can either come with your personality or they can be developed once you have grasped the technical nature of the job," he says.

"Employers need to develop their staff by tailoring the training to each individual. Poor soft skills can be career limiting.

"To be able to climb up into the management space you not only need to be an expert at your job - so you can lead - you need skills to influence others.

"Right now a lot of business are going through changes, and to lead those changes successfully, companies need good communicators."

Singh says there is the bigger picture to consider, too. Because if soft skills limit people's ability to move up the ladder, then the company may be stifled as it may eventually lack future leaders with institutional knowledge.

"If soft skills haven't been developed in employees then it actually limits them in taking the next step up the career ladder - from team leader to middle management, and from there to senior management - that can become a critical issue.

"I guess a lot of larger businesses would have trained people for this in the past, but during the recession training budgets were cut and things such as developing people in soft skills were among the first to go.

"Companies needed people who could do the mechanics of a job, and so that's where the training dollars went."

Singh says a survey the firm did last year of more than 1600 finance, accounting, HR and executive-level managers, revealed that 22 per cent of respondents (326) cited communications skills as missing. Another lack revealed in the survey was interpersonal, management and leadership skills.

One third of those surveyed say their organisations offered no training in business writing, presentation or negotiation skills. Around 20 per cent of firms did not provide any training or development of leadership or team-building skills.

"Our survey showed that staff tend to get the technical training they need from their employer, but when it comes to communication, management and leadership it appears many firms have lost their focus on this. But this type of training is needed to maintain continuity and the retention of good staff."

Singh also says this lack of training will hit companies' bottom lines due to poor communication and lack of clarity leading to inefficiencies.

"It's hard to quantify because each company is different," says Singh. "But what starts happening is that if you don't have good leaders then you don't have good communicators, and that causes things to fall through the cracks.

"And when that starts occurring, inefficiencies start manifesting in teams. The end result is that you start to see employees leaving the firm."

This view is borne out by a separate Robert Half survey in February that revealed poor management was threatening the ability of firms to hang on to good staff.

The survey of 521 New Zealand finance, accounting and HR professionals found that 31 per cent of employees described the management skills of the person they reported to as average or below. The survey also found 34 per cent of employees would leave if they thought another company had a better management structure.

Singh says that when hungry employees don't get the training they need, they will look to move on.

"And when they do exit the business, the cost of recruiting someone to the organisation is far more costly than the price of training," he says. "It always takes time to get a new recruit up to speed and that creates a loss in productivity."

However, soft skills training is not a one-stop solution for every organisation, says Singh. He recommends firms look at staff as individuals.

"Each employee will have their strengths and weaknesses," he says.

"So it's probably beneficial for senior managers to spend one-on-one time with each employee and start to understand their career aspirations. Then you can tailor training solutions for each person.

"An employer may find some staff need leadership skills, while others need to work on the way they communicate."

Training staff can also help them feel more engaged with their firm, says Singh.

"Tailored training lets staff know they are not a number, which buys a lot of loyalty which helps retain good people," he says.

Apart from the decision of some business owners to cut back on training, Singh says companies that have reduced the headcount mean that even if managers see a need to train team members, they may not have the time.

"That can create a level of disillusionment between the employee and their manager," he says. "Resignations at all levels are occurring because of that.

"Junior staff can feel they haven't had the attention they expect and haven't had the opportunity to develop further. Managers can't help due to lack of time and resources - many just can't get training budgets signed off.

"Some managers are finding it difficult to balance it all - balancing between getting their job done and helping colleagues learn the skills they need to progress their career and remain engaged."
Steve Hart is a freelance writer at