Employers
By providing soft skills training and resources you are investing in your employee. Soft skills are difficult to teach, which means the investment could be pretty high. So most employers want that employee to keep working for them. Some employers do not offer training because they are worried that the employee will take the soft skills and leverage them for a new job. That fear is not unfounded. The average person will change jobs 12 times during their career. That does not mean you shouldn’t invest resources in your employees.
This worst-case scenario is possible, but not as common as many people assume. In fact, people are more likely to leave a company if they are not getting the support and training they need, than if they are. A study by Bamboo HR showed that 21% of employees who left their job in the first six months cited that their reason for leaving was that they were not given the training they needed. Therefore to prevent your employees from leaving, employers need to invest in onboarding them, training them, and promoting their personal development.
AgCareers data further supports this. They found that offering training helped with retention. Since employees are actively looking for opportunities to grow and improve, they felt supported by management when the company invested in them. Second, better soft skills improve overall company culture. The culture is a major factor influencing whether or not people stay at a job or switch to a different company doing a similar job.
One final thought: all employees will eventually leave their job. By improving their soft skills and hard skills while they are employed by you, you are increasing their productivity and job performance, making that employee more valuable. Having someone operating at their peak is just good business. Having a better work culture than encourages other employees to stay is just an added bonus.
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