Why does my organisation need to develop soft skills?

Susan Collins, director of talent acquisition and employer branding at Talbots, shared some eye-opening statistics at the Society for Human Resource Management's 2020 talent conference. The successful director said...

Ninety-seven per cent of employers surveyed said that soft skills were either as important or more important than hard skills. However, 46 per cent of new employees fail within 18 months and of these, 89 per cent fail because of a lack of soft skills, such as professionalism or the ability to get along with others.

After our economy begins to rebound, hiring will be a high priority. Employers should avoid the common mistake of focusing on hard skills - experience, expertise, degrees, certifications, etc. - at the expense of soft skills. To paraphrase the research Collins shared, employers should be more concerned about the 89 per cent than the 11 per cent.

Research reveals that soft skills - such as communication, teamwork and time management - are worth £88bn to the UK economy.

McDonald’s UK has launched a new campaign to drive recognition and promotion of soft skills – such as communication and interpersonal skills, teamwork, and time and self-management – as, for the first time, research demonstrates the £88 billion contribution these skills make to the UK economy.

UK employers and workers echo this anxiety about the future. Whilst 97 percent of employers believe soft skills are important to their current business success – and more than half rate them more highly than academic qualifications – three-quarters believe there is already a soft skills gap in the UK workforce.

Jez Langhorn, Chief People Officer, McDonald’s UK & Northern Europe, said: “Soft skills like communication and teamwork are incredibly important to our business because of the impact they can have on our customers’ experience. As integral as they are to the performance and progression of our employees, I know that we can do more to recognise their importance which is why we are launching this campaign. In conjunction with James Caan, and a wide range of businesses and organisations I want to find ways in which we can better recognise soft skills and I’m calling on others to join us in re-evaluating and improving these skills.”