Soft Skills

The Competencies Employers Desire Most

Soft Skills Matter

77% of employers believe that soft skills are as important as hard skills and 67% of HR Managers would hire a candidate with strong soft skills even if hard skills were weak. Yet 46% of new hires fail in the first 18 months — usually due to lack of soft skills.

There is a growing “Skills Gap” in the workforce, and both educators and employers are struggling to find a bridge.

So, what are you doing to measure and develop your learners’ critical soft skills?

No matter what you call them, soft skills matter!

Soft Skills is the most universally-understood term that we use to refer to the skills that are hard to show on a resume, but are essential to any individual’s success in the 21st Century workforce, and really to life in general. That is why these skills are often referred to as transferable skills, 21st Century skills, impact skills or life skills.

In the world of higher education, organizations such as NACE have defined many of these skills as career readiness competencies. And in the realm of workforce development & adult education, we often call them employability skills or workplace competencies. These are also many of the same skills that businesses look to cultivate in strong leaders.

16 of The Most In-Demand Soft Skills

Below are the 16 industry-recognized soft skills that are assessed and developed through PSI’s competency-based learning platform, Am I Job Ready. Each competency is broken down into the key behaviors that it takes to demonstrate the skill in the workplace, providing a soft skills training curriculum that covers more than 70+ key learning outcomes.