Formal qualifications and technical skills are only part of the requirements for modern employees, as ‘soft skills’ and personal attributes are just as important to success. In fact, 92 percent of companies surveyed reported that human capabilities matter as much or more than hard skills in today’s business world, according to LinkedIn’s 2019 Global talent trends report.

The report Soft skills for business success by Deloitte assessed the importance of obtaining and measuring softer skills to better understand the areas that need to be improved in the workforce. Given the importance of softer skills, it is important that we continue to build our understanding of how we perform. Effectively investing in improving our soft skills will bring significant benefits – to individuals, businesses and our economies. Below we listed some impressive highlights of the report.

Study highlights

• Demand for soft skills exceeds supply by up to 45%.
• Soft skill-intensive occupations will grow 2.5x faster than other jobs and will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030.
• Softer skills are also referred to as employability skills and enterprise skills, and they are transferable between industries and occupations.
• Despite the value that businesses place on softer skills, data from LinkedIn profiles reveals that  less than 1% report having any softer skills on their profiles.
• Communication skills are most short in supply. Other important softer skills are teamwork, digital skills and problem-solving, as well as emotional judgement, professional ethics and global citizenship. See the figure below for an overview of the demand of softer skills.

Read the full report here.

For more insights like this, follow our updates on the Roots Inspire blog!