Soft skills matter a lot in the workplace. Here’s why.
As the workforce grows more dependent on knowledge workers, companies are beginning to see the value in soft skills.
Fortune 500 companies regularly train employees in soft skills, and multinational corporations, such as McDonald’s, are launching national campaigns to educate workers on them.
For these employers, the value of soft skills is clear. When employees don’t have them, it costs companies money – lots of money.
Take this example of a call center that had absenteeism problems. Workers were missing nine percent of the time – well above the industry average of five percent or less. With 200 call center employees, working 220 days per year, solving this problem is worth $176,000 annually.
More broadly, a meta-analysis of multiple studies showed that for every $1,100 invested in soft skills training, companies receive a return on investment (ROI) of $4,000.
So needless to say, bringing soft skills to the table from the start is a surefire way to land and keep a job.