Top 5 Soft Skills That Will Help Your Workforce Power Through 2022

The world is experiencing constant changes with the corporate landscape evolving continuously. In the past two years, the reliance on technological advancements has increased considerably. More and more work processes have become automated which has also meant that hard skills are at risk of becoming obsolete real fast.

This has increased the spotlight on soft skills making it clear that they are imperative for organizations to future-proof their workforce. A McKinsey report points out that soft skills are progressively in demand in the current job market and their demand will continue to increase till 2030.

As organizations continue to navigate the challenges from the pandemic, soft skills will dominate the working ecosystem in the coming year too. In this article, we will look at 5 important soft skills that will play a key role in employee development in 2022.

Creativity

The ambiguity of 2020 as well as 2021 has prompted organizations to think of newer ways to achieve productivity in operations. It has become more important than ever to encourage a creative mindset in the workplace to foster a culture where employees feel stimulated to propose new ideas. In order to adapt to the changing demands of the market, innovating upon existing processes is critical. A Gallup research shows a strong link between workplace engagement and creativity emphasizing that the demand for creativity will keep growing.

Creativity will continue to remain a valuable skill in 2022, alongside other soft skills because without creativity and finding ways to adapt to change, your business will be at risk.

Communication

Strong communication skills are the cornerstone of a smooth workplace culture. The rise in remote work in 2020 and 2021 introduced us to concepts like Zoom fatigue and digital burnout. As people felt overwhelmed staring at their screen all day, the need for communication -- whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid – became paramount.

Moving forward, in 2022, as hybrid work will remain the norm, employees will need to continue ensuring they have effective business communication as well as interpersonal communication skills.

Leadership & Management

For the success of any learning program, it’s important to create a motivating environment and the culture shift should start from the leadership. However, developing leadership and management skills cannot be limited just to people who are in senior leadership positions.

Organizations need to extend leadership training to all employees, irrespective of what their roles, positions or managerial aspirations are. Businesses who do this are more likely to outperform those who don’t in terms of revenue, operations and return on investment. In 2022 too, helping employees hone their leadership skills will help them make progress with their team members as well as clients.

Emotional Intelligence

Today, emotional intelligence plays a key role as leaders recognize it as a must-have for keeping employees happy and engaged, whether working from home or office. Emotional intelligence is what fosters creativity, empathy, resilience, flexibility and more.

Strong emotional intelligence enables individual employees, teams and the organization as a whole to be collaborative and innovative amid challenging and uncertain situations. Going into 2022, it will remain an essential soft skill to help unify team members.

Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking has become a significant skill for almost every business function given the turbulent times of the past two years. To put it in perspective, critical thinking goes hand in hand with communication skills and creativity as an essential soft skill. Without critical thinking, the risk of failures in business decisions along the way remains high.

Critical thinking includes the ability to conceptualize the information available while analyzing and evaluating it. In the next year too, this skill will remain important for employees along with the ability to think strategically and see the big picture.

Parting Thoughts

Soft skills can determine the success or inadequacy of your organizational programs. With the rapid innovation in technology, it will become more important in 2022 to make soft skills your competitive advantage.

Loved what you read? Don’t forget to check out the other insightful resources on our website.