A comprehensive skill set includes both hard and soft skills. But what are these? And what makes a skill either “hard” or “soft”?
According to a Forbes article, The Top 10 In-Demand Soft Skills To Learn In 2024, Based On Research, soft skills are “psychosocial skills that are applicable to any workplace and enable one to succeed in their career and work well with others.”
In other words, while they might be “soft” and more challenging to quantify, they are essential in the workplace. These skills are critical to building a company and a career regardless of your industry. Below, read more about soft skills, how they differ from hard skills, and how to learn them.
What are soft skills?
As mentioned above, soft skills are interpersonal skills. These capabilities have more to do with someone’s personality, life experiences and the traits they have developed over time than what they have studied. Soft skills are also referred to as core skills, which might be a more helpful way to describe them, as “soft” can have a vague connotation.
Examples include communication, work ethic, adaptability, creativity and problem-solving. As you can see, these are broad categories and can involve many other subsets of skills. These include listening, confidence, negotiation, writing, public speaking, empathy, and so on!
What are hard skills?
Hard skills, on the other hand, are more concrete. We learn these abilities through training. For example, studying computer science at university can teach someone how to code and build software. Therefore, computer programming is a hard skill.
These abilities are more straightforward to define, evaluate, and measure, meaning people might favour them in some circumstances. However, as we can already see from the examples in the previous point, both types of skills often go hand in hand.
How are soft and hard skills different?
Hard skills are “hard” because they are easy to define and quantify. For example, it’s simple in computer programming to figure out someone’s ability to code or build software by giving them a task. On the other hand, testing someone’s creativity will be more of an abstract exercise (even though this comes with building software, too!).
To give a helpful definition, Indeed’s article “10 Reasons Why Soft Skills Are Important for Your Career” sums up the meaning of the two as the following:
“Although hard skills show employers your expertise and technical abilities, soft skills indicate your ability to collaborate with your colleagues and grow within a company.”
For managers recruiting employees, the distinction between soft and hard skills is a way to gauge an applicant’s suitability for a position. However, they might overlook interpersonal skills in favour of hard skills, sometimes to the detriment of the role and the team.
It might seem so on the surface, but you can’t have one without the other. A company with the most technically proficient employees can fall apart if team members can’t work together. On the other hand, a less technically skilled company could grow and learn the relevant practical skills together if its members are creative and can work together as a team – depending on the industry, of course!
Overall, these two broad categories of skills are both critical. We might consider them separate skills, but they often go together. However, with the rise of AI, interpersonal skills are becoming more vital as AI starts to perform technical tasks.
Why are soft skills important?
We’ve covered what soft skills are, what hard skills are, and the difference between them. It’s also been touched on how hard and soft skills can work together. This is because while it’s possible to have employees who perform routine tasks in isolation, there needs to be some kind of cooperation, and “soft” interaction for any business to grow or evolve.
How you interact with people and deal with challenges says a lot about your potential longevity at a company. If you cannot communicate clearly, work in a team and aren’t good at solving problems, you will probably struggle in any kind of work environment. Maintaining good relationships takes effort in any situation. In the workplace, it’s more effective to hire people who can build networks and thrive in the long term.
However, the truth is that interpersonal skills don’t always come naturally and can take effort to learn. You can read books and build on core competencies by studying independently, but mastering these abilities takes time and practice. For example, you can theoretically understand what to do in a tense situation in a meeting, but it takes practice to deal with conflict constructively.
If you’re a manager, this is probably something you’ve had to deal with. It’s also something you’ve probably learnt through trial and error. But you don’t have to! You can upskill yourself with training to improve your competencies, just as you would for hard skills. It’s never too late to upskill in this area.
Why are soft skills necessary?
We’ve covered the difference between soft and hard skills and how they work together. While it is possible to have employees who perform routine tasks in isolation, for any business to grow or evolve, there must be team engagement, collaboration and cooperation – “soft” interactions.
How you interact with people and deal with challenges also says much about your potential longevity at a company. You will probably struggle in any work environment if you cannot work in a team and aren’t good at solving problems. Maintaining good relationships takes work in any situation. Hiring people who can establish networks, build relationships and thrive long-term is effective in the workplace.
However, interpersonal skills can be more challenging to learn. You can build core competencies by reading books and studying independently, but mastering these abilities takes time and practice. For example, you can theoretically understand what to do in a tense situation in a meeting, but it takes practice to deal with conflict constructively.
If you’re a manager, soft skills may be something you learn through trial and error. But you don’t have to! Some people might have learned these skills earlier in their lives and careers, but it’s never too late to upskill in this area.
How to learn soft skills
Reading more about these core competencies is a good starting point. From there, you can take courses, both online and offline. We recommend learning in a dynamic setting, where you can interact with other attendees to ensure you get theoretical and practical knowledge of the relevant skills.
You could take a course outside the workplace to expand on skills like creativity. A creative writing or even an art class could help you learn to think differently and exercise a different part of your brain. You’ll also meet people in the course, which can help refine your social skills.
However, attending a course directly applicable to the soft skills you want to learn in your chosen role or profession is often more worthwhile.
For example, learning a skill like coaching is a very effective way to hone various soft skills. Managing and motivating a team can also help develop your interpersonal capacity. Other ideas include taking courses about human behaviour or interpersonal communication.
Learn valuable soft skills with SACAP Global
If you want to improve your interpersonal skills and expand your core social abilities, SACAP Global is the right place to start.
All our online short courses and workshops are designed by experts in the field and hosted on a user-friendly platform that creates an accessible and engaging learning experience. Our online micro-credentials can also be “stacked” or accumulated towards module exemption if accepted into formal degree studies at SACAP.
We offer a range of flexible online courses covering Applied Psychology, Business Management, and Human Resources Management, which we’ll expand on below:
Applied Psychology
In Applied Psychology, which uses psychological theory and methods to solve practical problems, we offer courses such as Intro to Human Behaviour, Factors Influencing Human Behaviour, Domains of Psychology and How to Have Critical Conversations.
Human Resources Management
Human Resources Management involves more than just hiring new people. It is also about sourcing talent, increasing employee retention, and growing a business with the right people. In this area, we focus on building skills with courses such as Employee Motivation & Wellness and Recruiting & Retaining Top Talent.
Business Management
If you’re looking for a practical way to develop your management capabilities, you can take a course in Coaching Skills for Managers, Intro to Management & Leadership and Intro to Business Environments.
Communication
Communication and relating to and engaging with others are core skills that can help you work more successfully and advance your career. Our course offerings in this area include Advanced Interpersonal Communication and Effective Interpersonal Communication.
For more information about our short online offerings, browse our complete list of courses.