As we approach a new year and a new decade, smart employers are already looking to the future. They’re considering what skills employees will need to meet changing industry demands. Healthcare, skilled trades, and many other industries are in a state of change and growth. Your employees should be too.  It is true that each industry requires specific technical or clinical capabilities. Yet, there are some soft skills that every employee will need in 2020. These seven workplace skills can equip employees for success now and into the future.

It's a truth not yet universally acknowledged that skills are more important than degrees in today's economy. Proactive employers are reworking job postings and hiring processes to bring in applicants with the right aptitudes. They're also training workers to improve vital competencies. It's a step in the right direction. But are employers doing enough?

When you think customer service, you might think about such industries as retail, hospitality, and restaurants. In these industries, training workers in customer service is essential. At the same time, almost every industry could benefit from workers who have customer service training. 

Retail isn’t the only place where great customer service skills are essential. Businesses in almost every industry can benefit from helping employees build customer service skills.

In almost every industry, for almost every business, finding qualified middle-skills candidates to fill open jobs is difficult. The low unemployment rate isn't helping. Jobs are harder to fill and keeping existing employees is more important than ever. Meanwhile, rapid changes in technology and the development of new ways of doing business, mean that even existing employees may not have the right skill sets.

The demand for front line employees with well-developed soft skills has never been higher. While technical skills have been and will always remain important, soft skills are the crucial capabilities for employees working in any industry. From retail to manufacturing, strong soft skills has become the number one requirement for incoming or newly hired employees.1

In the retail industry, it can be difficult to find and retain reliable employees who have a developed set of soft skills. Whether hires simply don't work out or leave to look for different career opportunities, low retention rates make finding strong leaders you trust to run the day-to-day operations of your business nearly impossible. One solution to boost retention rates and prepare your employees to take on leadership roles is investing in comprehensive soft skills training. 

Last week, we examined the importance of having employees with well developed soft skills, and laid out the first two steps for developing an employee soft skills training program. First, you should perform a training needs assessment to identify which soft skills your training program should focus on. After that, it's critical to clearly define the performance goals you're hoping to impact with this training program.

The retail industry in the United States has, historically, had a higher than average turnover rate. Hourly store employees have the highest turnover rate at 65%, according to a survey from the Hay Group division of Korn Ferry. Considering these lower retention rates, hiring or promoting an employee to supervisor can be a frustrating, slow process for employers. However, if you hire supervisors with the right skill set, you may be able to drastically reduce these turnover rates, for both your supervisors and the employees they oversee.

There is no denying that soft skills are in high demand across the modern day workforce, regardless of profession or industry. According to a recent Penn Foster survey, 79% of employers said soft skills were important or very important to an employee's success at their company. Moreover, 64% of employers said there was a significant gap between the level of soft skills of the average candidate, and the level needed for success in an entry level role.