Soft Skills Training: Skills That Set Great Employees Apart

Technical knowledge may help someone qualify for a job, but it is often their soft skills that determine how successful they become once they are hired.

Employers need people who can communicate clearly, solve problems, manage their time, work with others, and adapt when circumstances change. These abilities affect nearly every aspect of the workplace—from customer relationships and teamwork to productivity and leadership. And as technology and artificial intelligence continue to reshape jobs, these distinctly human capabilities are becoming even more valuable.

For individuals who want to stand out in a competitive job market and companies that want to develop stronger, more effective teams, soft skills training can be an important part of workforce development.

What Are Soft Skills?

The Department of Labor lists traits like professionalism, work ethic, communication abilities, and critical thinking as examples of soft skills. These traits—among many others— rely on qualitative experiences and intuitive learning rather than technical expertise. In layman’s terms, soft skills are interpersonal, behavioral, and problem-solving abilities that influence how someone approaches their work and interacts with other people.

Unlike technical or “hard” skills, soft skills aren’t necessarily specific to one occupation. A welder, truck driver, administrative assistant, sales professional, and manager may each possess completely different sets of technical knowledge, but all can benefit from strong communication, reliability, critical thinking, and teamwork.

That’s one reason soft skills are sometimes referred to as durable skills or power skills: they can remain valuable throughout a person’s career, even as jobs and technology change.

The SHRM Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM),  lists communication, teamwork, and resilience as skills that help both employees and organizations adapt to a changing workplace.

Which Soft Skills Do Employers Value Most?

There isn’t one soft skill that guarantees career success. Instead, employees who develop a combination of interpersonal, organizational, and thinking skills can become more valuable contributors to their organizations.

According to the National Soft Skills Association, research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation, and Stanford Research Center concluded that 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft skills and people skills, while only 15% of job success comes from technical skills. This means students looking to enter the workforce or employees currently in the workforce should prioritize soft skill training. 

Here’s a look at some of the most important soft skills to develop and why they are important.

Good communication isn’t simply the ability to speak well. Employees need to know how to accurately do the following:

• listen
• ask questions
• communicate expectations
• write clearly
• adjust their communication style to match their audience.

2. Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking

Employers value employees who don’t simply identify problems, they help find solutions. People with strong problem-solving skills have the ability to do the following well:

• assess a situation
• gather information
• consider alternatives
• make thoughtful decisions 
• take initiative.

An article from SHRM reported that HR professionals and hiring managers identify problem-solving, time management, and adapting to change among the most important soft skills for employees.

3. Adaptability

Job responsibilities change. Technology changes. Customers change. Processes change.

Employees who can adjust to new circumstances without allowing every change to derail their performance—or cause them to complain—can be incredibly valuable to an organization.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 67% of surveyed employers identified resilience, flexibility, and agility as core workforce skills, second only to analytical thinking.

Adaptability doesn’t mean employees should accept every change without question. It means they can learn, adjust, and continue moving forward when circumstances require a different approach

4. Teamwork and Collaboration

Few employees work completely independently.

Successful organizations depend on people who can share information, support co-workers, resolve disagreements, and contribute toward common goals. But even highly skilled employees can create problems when they are unable to collaborate effectively.

Teamwork requires employees to recognize that success isn’t always about receiving individual credit. Sometimes the most valuable employee is the person who helps the entire team perform better.

5. Time Management and Organization

Being busy isn’t necessarily the same as being productive.

Employees need to understand priorities, manage deadlines, organize their responsibilities, and use their time effectively. These skills become especially important as employees gain responsibility or manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Someone who consistently completes quality work on time builds something extremely valuable in the workplace: trust.

6. Emotional Intelligence

Employees work with people who have different personalities, experiences, communication styles, and perspectives. Emotional intelligence can help people recognize their own reactions while understanding how their words and actions affect others. It can improve communication, conflict resolution, leadership and customer interactions.

Empathy and active listening are significant enough that half of employers surveyed for the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 identified them as core workforce skills.

7. Conflict Resolution

Workplace disagreements are inevitable. How employees handle them can make the difference between a productive conversation and an ongoing workplace problem.

Employees who can address disagreements professionally, listen to other perspectives, and work toward solutions can help organizations maintain stronger teams.

This skill may be becoming even more valuable. LinkedIn ranked conflict mitigation as the second-fastest-growing skill in the United States in 2025, behind AI literacy.

8. Leadership

Leadership isn’t limited to people with “manager” or “director” in their title. Employees demonstrate leadership when they take initiative, help colleagues, communicate responsibly, solve problems, and accept accountability for their work.

Developing these abilities early can also prepare employees for supervisory and management opportunities later in their careers.

Why Should Companies Invest in Soft Skills Training?

Soft skills development isn’t simply an employee benefit. It can be part of an organization’s workforce strategy. Companies invest heavily in equipment, software, technology, and technical training. But those investments are ultimately put into practice by people.

Developing employees’ interpersonal and professional skills can support several important business objectives.

• Better communication. Clearer communication reduces misunderstandings, improves collaboration, and helps teams execute projects more effectively.
• Stronger managers. Technical expertise doesn’t automatically prepare someone to manage people. Leadership, communication, coaching, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence training can help employees make the transition into supervisory roles.
• Improved problem-solving. Employees who know how to evaluate challenges and make thoughtful decisions can address problems more independently and effectively.
• Better customer experiences. Communication, listening, empathy, professionalism, and conflict-management skills all influence how employees interact with customers.
• Greater adaptability. Organizations undergoing technological or operational change need employees who are willing and able to learn.
• A stronger talent pipeline. Professional development can help organizations prepare existing employees for future leadership and higher-responsibility positions rather than relying solely on outside hiring. This can reduce turnover and potentially boost ROI.

Training itself can also matter to employees. SHRM research found that 55% of surveyed workers said they needed more training to perform their jobs more effectively, while employees also expressed interest in developing soft skills including leadership, communication and collaboration.

Soft Skills Can Be Learned

Develop Your Workforce with Ancora Training

Whether you’re an individual preparing for your next career opportunity or an employer looking to strengthen your workforce, developing soft skills can deliver benefits that extend far beyond a single job or task.

Ancora Training offers online professional development courses for individuals who want to build and strengthen important workplace skills through Ancora Academy. These courses provide an accessible way for learners to develop capabilities that can help them stand out to employers, perform more effectively, and prepare for future career opportunities.

Ancora Training also works with businesses and organizations to provide professional development and soft skills training for employees. Companies can use workforce training programs to address specific skills gaps, develop stronger managers, improve communication, and build teams that are better prepared for changing workplace demands.

Technical skills will always matter. But knowing how to do a job is only one part of becoming a great employee. Knowing how to communicate, collaborate, adapt, solve problems, and lead is what can transform a capable employee into an indispensable one.

For employers, cultivating those abilities across the workforce can mean something even bigger: stronger teams, stronger leaders, and an organization better prepared for whatever comes next.

Book a consultation to discover what soft skills workforce development could look like for your organization.

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