The Best Soft Skills Training Strategies to Boost Team Performance

Soft skills are key non-technical abilities like leadership, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. These skills are crucial for enhancing workplace relationships and improving overall team performance.

While these skills may come naturally to some individuals, offering soft skills training on an organizational level can give employees and the overall business an edge. Investing in soft skills training for your team can lead to better collaboration, employee satisfaction, and productivity.

This article explores effective soft skills training strategies to boost your team’s performance. Looking for more tactics? Read our e-book: Top 3 Soft Skills Your Employees Need In the New World of Work.

What is soft skills training?

Soft skills training is designed to develop essential non-technical abilities like:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Leadership 
• Emotional intelligence

These skills are vital for building stronger workplace relationships and boosting collaboration. Unlike hard skills, which are specific to certain job functions and can be easily measured through exams or certifications, soft skills are more personal and often harder to quantify.

However, just because soft skills are hard to quantify doesn’t mean they can’t be developed. Employees’ personal and professional growth relies on an organization’s investment in soft skills training programs.

When effectively leveraged, this type of training can help individuals improve their social interactions, adaptability, and behavior, which in turn enhances their overall performance. In fact, soft skills significantly contribute to career success, accounting for roughly 85% of an individual’s achievement over their career span.

Developing soft skills is an ongoing process that involves continuous effort, experience, practice, and self-reflection. It’s about cultivating transferable abilities across various roles and industries, making them some of the most valuable assets in today’s workforce.

Differentiating soft skills from hard skills

Before discussing key soft skills strategies for your organization, it’s important to understand the differences between soft skills and hard skills.

Hard skills, also known as technical skills, are job-related competencies that are often a prerequisite for employment in certain fields. They’re critical for performing specific job functions and can be acquired through degrees, courses, or on-the-job training. Examples of hard skills, also known as technical skills, include graphic design, data analysis, and search engine optimization.

However, hard skills alone are not enough to ensure success in the workplace. This is where soft skills come into play. Unlike hard skills, soft skills are non-technical and relate to interactions and work performance. They include personal qualities and traits like teamwork, adaptability, and emotional intelligence, all of which impact how individuals work and collaborate with others.

Interestingly, when soft skills are effectively developed, they can help employees apply and prove their hard skills even more powerfully. They can also improve the strength of an overall team and organization by boosting collaborative potential.

What are the benefits of soft skills training?

Soft skills training programs offer numerous benefits with the power to transform individual performance and overall organizational success. Notably, these programs can greatly improve employee performance. For example, one study found that a 12-month soft skills training program across five factories improved return on investment by roughly 250 percent.

Another key benefit of soft skills training is its ability to improve interpersonal relationships. This, in turn, leads to better teamwork and a stronger sense of community within the workplace. When employees communicate effectively and empathize with one another, it creates a more positive work environment and enhances collaboration. This can even lead to benefits such as improved employee retention, as participants feel more valued and motivated in their roles.

Soft skills training is particularly crucial for specific industries and job functions, especially those that interact with customers regularly. By training employees to respond empathetically in their communication, businesses can improve the strength of their customer service and respond to customer needs more effectively. This can improve brand reputation and lead to increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.

3 essential soft skills to develop

Now, let’s focus on three crucial soft skills: communication, collaboration, and time management. Each plays a pivotal role in ensuring efficient operations, effective teamwork, and a positive work culture.

1. Communication skills

Effective communication is the cornerstone of successful teamwork and client relations. Strong communication skills enable employees to:

• Interact efficiently with clients, partners, and each other
• Build rapport
• Practice active listening skills
• Speak confidently and concisely
• Provide constructive feedback more effectively

Bolstering interpersonal communication in these ways can also lead to increased client satisfaction and loyalty. Being able to deliver information clearly and concisely can help keep things clear, expedite conversations, and resolve potential conflicts.

Presentation skills are another vital aspect of communication, involving the ability to:

• Deliver information in a structured and engaging manner
• Use visual aids effectively to enhance an audience’s understanding
• Adapt the presentation style to suit the audience’s needs and preferences

With opportunities to polish their presentation skills, employees can communicate more effectively—both within their teams and with external stakeholders.

2. Teamwork and collaboration

Like communication skills, strong collaboration skills are essential for effective teamwork, innovation, and achieving collective goals. Teamwork skills allow employees to gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses within a team, and provide an opportunity to improve communication with others for better outcomes.

Collaboration skills also involve:

• The ability to take accountability for errors, and communicate any plans for resolving them
• Conflict mediation skills
• A shared commitment to working in a group
• The ability to foster creativity and innovation

3. Time management

Efficient time management is crucial for meeting deadlines, avoiding stress, and enhancing reliability. Good time management skills help individuals prioritize tasks, allocate time effectively, and maintain a positive approach to challenges, thereby increasing efficiency.

One helpful technique for improving time management skills is time blocking, which involves allocating specific blocks of time for different tasks. This approach can help employees stay focused, avoid procrastination, and ensure that all tasks are completed on time, ultimately improving personal productivity and overall team performance.

Because it is often impacted by external factors, time management can be one of the most challenging to train on. However, fostering a work culture where employees receive training to learn to prioritize tasks, set boundaries, and manage their time more efficiently can pay dividends in the long run.

Effective methods for teaching soft skills

Effective soft skills training requires an engaging approach encouraging active participation and real-world application. Below, we’ll cover three of the most effective methods: role-playing exercises, story-based learning, and gamification.

Role-playing exercises

Role-playing exercises allow employees to participate in scenarios to practice and enhance specific soft skills. These exercises help employees understand different perspectives and improve their problem-solving abilities by working through realistic workplace situations.

Scenarios used in role-playing can be tailored to address specific challenges employees face in their roles, providing immediate feedback and opportunities for improvement. For example, a customer service team might act out common scenarios from the perspective of both the service agent and the client to form a deeper understanding of how these interactions might play out.

Using role-playing in e-learning can be a very effective way to work through scenarios with employees at scale. With the right e-learning software, you can set up simulations and branching logic to help employees understand cause and effect while also aiding in knowledge retention.

Story-based learning

Story-based learning uses narratives or storytelling methods to convey essential lessons and concepts. This can be a highly valuable tool in soft skills training. By reflecting on their personal experiences or envisioning scenarios with fictional characters, employees can extract valuable insights and apply them to real-life situations.

Narratives in story-based learning often mirror the challenges of the job, making lessons more relatable and memorable. This method helps illustrate the consequences of different actions and decisions, enhancing employees’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Gamification

To make your soft skills courses more engaging and motivating, try incorporating game design elements like point scoring, leaderboards, and rewards. These gamification elements encourage participation and make the training experience more enjoyable for participants.

Interactive games can simulate real-life scenarios your employees might encounter, allowing them to practice and refine their soft skills in a controlled, low-risk environment. Be sure to offer opportunities for constructive feedback in your gamified training to allow participants to hone their skills over time.

How to implement soft skills training programs

To implement a soft skills program effectively and at scale, it’s important to follow a framework. Below, we’ll cover the key steps to doing so, including assessing skill gaps, choosing the right delivery method, and promoting continuous learning and feedback.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your training is tailored to meet the specific needs of your organization and employees.

1. Assess skill gaps

Identifying existing skill gaps among employees is a crucial first step for tailoring training programs efficiently. Organizations can pinpoint opportunities for soft skills development by speaking with employees at all levels and consulting with managers.

Assessing skill gaps helps ensure that your training addresses specific needs and enhances your team’s overall performance. This is essential for creating targeted and impactful training programs.

2. Choose the right delivery method

To ensure your employees can effectively engage with and retain material, it’s key to select the appropriate delivery method for your soft skills training. This may vary depending on the needs of your organization or team.

For example, you may want to create a dedicated soft skills course that allows employees to access training regularly in bite-size chunks without interfering with their day-to-day work. You can also use micro-learning, which breaks down training into small and actionable segments, to allow for immediate application of soft skills.

3. Encourage continuous learning and feedback

Encouraging regular feedback and self-reflection helps employees identify areas for improvement and fosters a learning mindset. This culture of continual learning is essential for addressing mistakes and setting new goals.

Utilizing an e-learning platform like Articulate 360 can help you provide consistent and personalized learning experiences with opportunities for feedback.

Leveraging technology in soft skills training

Technology—specifically online learning platforms—is a key way to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of soft skills training. These platforms provide flexible and engaging training environments that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of employees.

Below, we’ll explore how platforms like Articulate 360 can be used to develop soft skills.

E-learning platforms for soft skill development

When it comes to soft skills training, e-learning platforms offer the following benefits:

• Access to training regardless of an employee’s geographical location or time constraints
• Interactive multimedia modules for an engaging learning experience
• Videos for visual and auditory learning
• Multi-device access

These platforms provide learners with a flexible and convenient way to develop their soft skills, making it easier for employees to fit training into their schedules.

Articulate 360 capabilities

Articulate 360, the leading e-learning platform, offers a platform designed to help you create engaging, interactive courses tailored to specific soft skills. Some key capabilities include:

• Engaging learner experiences: Articulate 360 lets you build interactive, effective, and engaging sales training that can include branching scenarios, interactive activities, knowledge checks, and a wide range of assessments.
• Intuitive authoring for ALL course creators: With Articulate 360’s intuitive UI and integrated AI Assistant, you and your cross-functional collaborators can easily create effective sales training to boost sales performance.
• Quizzes and knowledge checks: Provide your learners with immediate feedback, helping them identify areas for improvement and track their progress.
• Helpful Templates: Get a head start on course creation with a library of templates on key sales topics such as prospecting, pipeline management, objection handling, and deal negotiation.
• Seamless collaboration and reviews: Collaborate on course creation by inviting colleagues to create and edit content, improving the quality of your sales training. Collect and approve in-context feedback, simplifying and accelerating the entire course review and approval process.

By leveraging the capabilities of platforms like Articulate 360, organizations can ensure continuous development and a more dynamic approach to soft skills training.

Measuring the impact of soft skills training

To ensure the effectiveness of your soft skills training, b e sure to close the loop by evaluating its impact. This can be done through performance metrics, employee feedback, and observed behavioral changes. Pre- and post-assessments can gauge initial and post-training performance levels, providing a clear picture of the training’s impact.

You can also provide employees with opportunities for self-assessment, peer feedback, and supervisor feedback, or track improvements in key areas like productivity, collaboration, and communication after training. Including 360-degree feedback allows for assessment from multiple perspectives, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation.

Evaluation methods for soft skills training programs include:

• Knowledge checks and quiz results from online training programs
• Surveys to gather subjective insights into the effectiveness of the training
• Observing real-life applications of the skills learned
• Assessing knowledge retention rates to measure the long-term impact of the training

These evaluation methods help organizations refine and improve their soft skills training programs by utilizing various soft skills training methods.

Real-life examples of successful soft skills training

Real-life soft skills training examples can provide valuable insights into the implementation and positive results of soft skills training programs. For instance, Google’s Project Oxygen program demonstrated that managers who effectively communicated and supported employee well-being were key to maintaining high-performing teams.

IBM’s Leadership Development Program focuses on enhancing soft skills such as emotional intelligence, collaboration, and communication among its leaders.

Zappos invested in training programs prioritizing customer service skills, which enhanced employee communication and problem-solving abilities, leading to higher customer satisfaction. These case studies highlight the common benefits of soft skills training programs, such as:

• Improved communication
• Better leadership
• Enhanced problem-solving abilities
• Increased employee engagement and satisfaction.

The impact of employee soft skills training

Investing in soft skills training programs is essential for enhancing employee performance, fostering better workplace relationships, and driving overall organizational success. By understanding the key benefits, differentiating between soft and hard skills, and focusing on developing essential soft skills like communication, teamwork, and time management, organizations can create a more dynamic and effective workforce.

Looking for more strategies to improve employee soft skills? Read our e-book: Top 3 Soft Skills Your Employees Need In the New World of Work.