Soft skills may be the most critical need in business today, given the pace of change in job requirements. In fact, our research indicates that 63% of L&D leaders see a skills gap in soft skills – far more than the gap they see in technical and functional skills. Join the webinar to hear what L&D leaders around the country told us about: The criticality of soft skills The soft skills gap in their organizations What they’re doing to measure and address the gap Attendees can download a white paper with the results of our latest research.

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Frequently Asked Questions

5. Making the Business Case for
Soft Skills

6. Speakers
Sarah Kimmel
Vice President, Research
Human Capital Media
Chief Learning Officer, Workforce
Skimmel@humancapitalmedia.com
Michelle Eppler, EdD
Associate Vice President,
Bellevue University’s Human Capital Lab
Dean,College of Continuing & Professional Studies
Eppler@Bellevue.edu

7. Research Methodology
• N=617
• September 2018
• “Making the Business Case for Soft Skills” Survey
• Sent to CLO subscribers at manager level and above

8. More organizations have critical gaps in soft skills
63%
21%
19%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Soft Skills
Technical Skills
Functional Skills
Organizations with a substantial or critical skills gap

9. Skills gaps are a priority for organizations
76%
66%
56%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Soft Skills
Technical Skills
Functional Skills
Critical/Medium priority in the coming year

10. The Gap in Soft Skills isn’t getting better…
Shrinking
22%
Staying the
same
47%
Widening
31%

11. Business priorities impacted by soft skills gap
67%
56%
55%
53%
46%
45%
0% 25% 50% 75%
Employee satisfaction
Customer satisfaction
Productivity
Efficiency
Innovation
Employee retention

12. Power skills with moderate/severe skills gaps
65%
64%
63%
59%
54%
54%
33%
0% 25% 50% 75%
Communication
Decision making
Collaboration
Judgment
Problem-solving
Self-management
Values clarification

13. Organizations hire AND build soft skills…
8%
15%
50%
27%
0% 25% 50% 75%
Hire for soft skills
Build soft skills with training
Both hire and build soft skills
Have no hiring or learning strategy for soft
skills

14. Effective methods for building soft skills
88%
85%
76%
73%
66%
61%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Supervisor/manager coaching
On-the-job learning
Integrating soft skills training into other
curricula
Peer/social learning
Formal classroom training
Informal learning

15. Building soft skills takes time…
61%
60%
51%
49%
43%
39%
39%
7%
5%
4%
2%
4%
5%
10%
0% 25% 50% 75%
Judgment
Decision-making
Problem-solving
Collaboration
Communication
Self-management
Values clarification
6 months or
more
Maybe never

16. Metrics used to track soft skills
39%
37%
33%
30%
27%
25%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Items on employee satisfaction/
engagement surveys
Anecdotal evidence
Manager ratings
Customer complaints
None
360-degree team assessments

17. Use of assessments for soft skills…
67%
66%
64%
61%
59%
58%
55%
33%
34%
36%
39%
41%
42%
45%
0% 25% 50% 75%
Judgment
Decision-making
Problem-solving
Values clarification
Self-management
Collaboration
Communication
No
Yes/To some
extent

18. What are successful organizations
doing differently?

19. Organizations currently satisfied with soft
skills solutions
8%
18%
44%
30% Very
Satisfied
Satisfied
Somewhat
Satisfied
Not at all
satisfied

20. Where soft skills training is integrated
78%
69%
53%
50%
47%
34%
27%
46%
33%
22%
37%
14%
13%
10%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Leadership development
Coaching
Onboarding
Informal Learning
Core Skills
Executive Education
Sales training
Leaders
Starters

21. Models/tools used to assess soft skills
50%
9%
17%
37%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Multiple tools
None
Leaders
Starters

22. How successfully have they made the
business case for soft skills?
75%
20%
5%
11%
37%
52%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Very/Moderately successful
Somewhat successful
Not at all successful
Leaders
Starters

23. What are they using to make the business case?
75%
70%
70%
67%
64%
58%
52%
73%
64%
62%
65%
68%
63%
47%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Employee engagement
Productivity
Efficiency
Customer satisfaction
Employee satisfaction
Employee retention
Innovation
Leaders
Starters

24. Challenges in making the business case
26%
48%
57%
14%
36%
18%
68%
57%
52%
35%
34%
28%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Lack of leadership buy in
Lack of available budget
Difficulty finding time for employees to
attend training
Difficulty finding solutions that will work
for our organization
Need to customize for our organization
Lack of available coaches/trainers
Leaders
Starters

25. Leadership support for soft skills investment
78%
68%
60%
36%
38%
96%
2%
78%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Our senior leaders support investment in
improving soft skills for employees
My organization should be spending
more on soft skills training
My organization spends the appropriate
amount on soft skills training
Leadership buy-in for investment in soft
skill training is lacking
Leaders
Starters

26. Metrics tracked for soft skills
54%
45%
44%
40%
37%
26%
26%
12%
23%
31%
18%
19%
13%
7%
10%
46%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Items on employee satisfaction /
Anedotal evidence
Manager ratings
Customer complaints
360 degree team assessments
Formal assessments (tests)
Productivity metrics
No metrics tracked
Leaders
Starters

27. Assessments used for soft skills areas
59%
51%
50%
47%
46%
45%
39%
31%
29%
27%
21%
26%
24%
20%
0% 25% 50% 75%
Communication
Collaboration
Self-management
Problem-solving
Values clarification
Decision-making
Judgment
Leaders
Starters

28. Significant improvement in less than 6 months
66%
58%
66%
53%
65%
45%
39%
49%
45%
51%
41%
42%
34%
29%
0% 25% 50% 75%
Communication
Collaboration
Self-management
Problem-solving
Values clarification
Decision-making
Judgment
Leaders
Starters

29. Power Skills™
The Power to Adapt

30. Why Power Skills™?
• Employees with soft skills exhibit higher levels of productivity.
• Soft skills competencies give your organization agility.
• 63% of respondents see critical/substantial gap between employee
competency and organizational need.
• Three times the gap reported for technical skills and functional skills.

31. Why Power Skills™?
• Studies from SHRM (2008), Public Agenda (2011), Adecco Staffing (2013),
Lumina Foundation & The Economist Intelligence Unit (2014), ATD (2016),
Bureau of National Affairs (2018)
• Direct research with Bellevue University’s Advisory Boards.
• Expertise in integrating skills to performance model into learning programs.
All mention similar gaps in needed skills in the workforce and a definite need
to address these gaps and HR professionals plan and prepare for their future
workforce needs.

32. Why Power Skills™?
With such a long-term demand and a depth and breadth of research,
it’s clear there is nothing “soft” about these skills. Skill development
empowers learners to transform knowledge into abilities.

33. Power Skills™
7 critical skills
every business needs
to develop today

34. How do Power Skills™
improve performance?
• What we know about the future workforce from
Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends are:
• Future organizations will need to form teams rapidly.
• Collaboration, Communication, Self-Management, Problem Solving
• Future workforces will need “a balance of technical skills and
more general purpose skills such as problem solving,
creativity, and emotional intelligence.”

35. Preparing for the Future Workforce
• Agile Human Capital Ecosystems
• Frameworks for understanding and measuring
organizational workforce skills.
• Journey Maps – maps work taking place, and tools,
people, and information needed to understand where
tasks can be automated but where human empathy
can be leveraged or enhanced.
• Hiring lifelong learners
• Power Skills™

37. Power Skills™
• Competency can be measured.
• Skills can be taught.
• Ability can improve.
• Workforces can become more agile and adaptable to change.

38. Measuring Power Skills™ Gaps
• Current methods (based on our survey)
• Anecdotal evidence (37%)
• Customer Complaints (30%) and/or
• Engagement Surveys
These clearly give you an indication of what is missing –
perhaps after the fact – but don’t tell you current levels or
give you benchmarks for assessing progress.
NOTE: Would you accept these metrics for technical skills?

39. • Self-Reporting
• Manager Ratings
These also can provide an indication – but no benchmarking
that is quantitatively verifiable.
NOTE: Would you accept these metrics for technical skills?
Measuring Power Skills™ Gaps

40. • With all of this evidence and knowing the workforce skills gap will
only grow wider through 2020, we wanted to be part of the solution.
• The Power Skills PRO is designed to provide an individual with their
personal Power Skill assessment. The PRO does not assess through
self-reporting skills, but by actually measuring one’s skills.
• Can roll up to a department or entire workforce to provide
measurable benchmarks against which to evaluate progress.

41. • Special offer for those at the webinar today: PowerSkills PRO at a
reduced, introductory rate before general public introduction in
Spring, 2019.

42. Power Skills Boot Camps
The boot camps are designed to be taken individually,
in specialized groupings, or in full.
Learners can earn badges and certificates of
completion for each earned skill.
Earning all of the Power Skills’ boot camp badges will
earn the Power Skills Mastery badge and a learning
path Certificate of Completion in Power Skills.

43. How are these boot camps different?
• Each boot camp has its curriculum mapped to ensure introduction of
skill behavior, multiple repetitions, and mastery behaviors occur.
• We have found this approach works not only in our skill building boot
camps but in our corporate curriculum.

44. Bellevue University’s Human Capital Lab
• One of the first think tanks to focus on measuring
the impact of learning investments on
productivity in the workplace.
• Mission: Develop innovative and valuable
approaches to unlocking the long-term potential
of human capital investments.
• LAB studies include case studies on learning
investment, recruitment & onboarding, retention
& engagement, and leadership development.
HumanCapitalLab.org

45. Corporate Learning Solutions
Powered by Bellevue University
• Power Skills™ Learning Programs
• Future Leader Fundamentals™
• Tuition Assistance Support
• Reskilling/Upskilling
• Modern, Registered Apprenticeships
CorporateLearning.com
877-824-5516

46. Bellevue University
• Nationally recognized as a leader in adult learning
• Founded more than 50 years ago
• More than 50,000 graduates
• Students from across the globe
• More than 50 corporate partners
• Accredited by The Higher Learning Commission
(hlcommission.org), a regional accreditation agency
recognized by the U.S. Department of Education

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