Soft Skills Demand in the Workplace

The term soft skills have many definitions floating around the web. A standard dictionary definition identifies it as “desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive, flexible attitude.” Now the challenge is, soft skills are not genetic nor taught in tertiary institutions. They actually come with time from gained previous experiences or from reading. These days soft skills have different coined terms: Power skills, durable skills, human skills, people skills, durable skills and E.Q.

As the world shifts towards the digital economy, employees with concise knowledge and ability to perform at the workplace plus comprehend the importance of interpersonal skills are in demand. This would be from performing regular office tasks like being an active team player or the ability to lead a team well, conducting effective meetings, delivering high-end presentations or even during clientele visitation to closing sales deals. Individuals with the right skill set and knowledge can benefit from the integration with the rapid economic globalisation comparatively to the those, who will be unquestionably left behind.

The January 2019 Emerging Jobs in Malaysia report by the global professional network LinkedIn, highlighted the labour market values talent with a set of complementary hard and soft skills. This report was after LinkedIn analysed millions of unique, user-input job titles from the last five years, to identify which soft skills are in great demand.  The findings were vital to primarily help organisations in Malaysia navigate their digital transformation journey with jobs requiring hybrid skills. These findings chime with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs 2015 report, which concluded soft skills are likely to increase in value as technology and automation advances. The WEF surveyed chief human resources from leading global employers and listed Problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking, coordinating with others, emotional intelligence and people management to be the 6 top demand skills in 2020. The report added that over 1/3 of skills (35%), which are considered crucial in today’s workforce would have changed over the next 5 years.

For employees to stay pertinent in this IR 4.0 digital transformation era, it is essential to develop a learning and growing mindset, regardless of their job role and company size. Therefore, those open and incessantly have the urge to reskilling and upskilling opportunities will have better secured career advancement. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs and Alumni from Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), Associate Professor Dr Nor Hisham Hamid, noted that being a highly competent and possessing good technical talent will not guarantee a company to achieve its organisational goal or help its staff to succeed or survive. Instead, strong soft skills ensure a productive, collaborative and healthy work environment, which are all vital attributes for organisations, especially among the 21^st century workforce in an increasingly competitive world.

It breaks down to the staff’s interest to learn and adopt appropriate soft skills as these cannot be artificially enforced. Employees also have some responsibility to reach out and seek knowledge for themselves by changing their work habits and behaviour towards learning and self-development. This could effortlessly be facilitated by having a company learning platform and network, enabling employees to connect with one another for advice, sharing new knowledge and communicating stories on what they have learned in their careers so far. These practise ensure employees to be proactive about their development and encourage them to take lead. By placing the power of learning in employees’ hands, organisations can ensure that their staff can continuously learn and train, offering a feasible and more importantly, scalable solution for upskilling the workforce.

Ultimately, man’s greatest asset is adaptability and the one thing that is certain about the future is change. Hence, employees who continuously upskill, reskill and multi-skill their hybrid of skills are inclined to stay relevant and become indispensable to their organisation. Citing from Charles Darwin: it is the most adaptable of species that will survive, not necessarily the strongest or fastest.

by 
Dr. Dayana N. H. Chaskar