Corporate Training solution

Soft skills training that fosters empathy

The technical ins and outs of your organization are “hard” skills. They represent the skills learners require to do their jobs correctly and efficiently. “Soft” skills, on the other hand, make up the qualities that contribute to success on an emotional level. From effective communication to emotional intelligence and leadership, soft skills encourage employees to think holistically about their roles.

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Why soft skills training?

Soft skills are often traits and abilities we think of as natural talents. When compared to technical and compliance training, it’s harder to check the boxes associated with communication skills, sales acumen, and listening abilities. Still, soft skills are just as vital to employee success as nitty gritty technical details. In fact, ELM Learning believes that soft skills training creates the foundation for more effective learning overall.

Our process

Our soft skills training courses typically follow a three-pronged approach that helps tackle some of the most common barriers to soft skills learning: context, practice, and continued coaching.

Soft skills training should always appeal to learners’ hearts and minds before they experience the content. By highlighting what’s in it for them and how your training can benefit their day-to-day interactions, ELM creates a healthy, inviting learning ecosystem.

Relevant learning scenarios are used to give learners a safe space to practice, fail, and succeed before bringing their newly acquired soft skills into their real-life relationships. Learners are able to see themselves in the content and experience real-time feedback, giving them the confidence to bring their improved soft skills to the workplace.

Continuous feedback means soft skills training is a perpetual experience. Person-to-person coaching creates accountability for those who have undergone the training. Even if it’s just a quick check-in on how an employee did in a certain situation, listening in on a phone call, or observing an interaction, consistent, timely feedback is the important secret sauce to this highly important piece of ELM’s soft skills approach.

Our approach to soft skills training

If you want employees to really learn and hone soft skills (or any skills) it’ll never be a one-time learning experience. When your organization is dedicated to developing soft skills in its workforce, the mindset must revolve around continuous practice and the drive to be better every single day. Never perfect, but always improved, soft skills training should be part of every long-term talent management strategy.
We believe that a human element is one of the most important factors in designing soft skills training for impactful, connective experiences. We often utilize a blended learning approach that combines in-person sessions with support materials to fortify connections and create stronger neural recall. We’ll work with your organization to define your soft skills goals, which can include targets such as:
- Better communication skills
- Improved listening
- Teamwork
- Leadership skills
- Adaptability and agility
Our custom soft skills training for employees means creating different combinations and delivery systems that put personal growth and development within reach.
How do you measure the benefits of more empowered learners or employees that adapt more quickly to change? It may seem impossible, but we know that soft skills, while difficult to quantify, do have a measurable effect on your bottom line. While soft skills might seem ambiguous, numbers don’t lie. Figures from the Stanford Research Institute International found that 75% of long-term career success is dependent on people skills (leaving only 25% as the result of technical knowledge).

When it comes to soft skills, we spend less time thinking about numbers and more time considering the individual learning environment. The result is immeasurable and the possibilities for improvement are infinite.

Some cool things we’ve done

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FAQs

Hard skills are technical skills that are typically job-specific, such as:
- Computer programming
- Writing
- Machinery operation
- Experience with particular software applications
- Experience with specific processes, procedures, methods, or techniques
We commonly refer to soft skills as “interpersonal skills,” “people skills,” or “social skills.” That’s because they have to do with the way we relate with colleagues and leaders at work. They’re behavioral and experience-based. They’re also relevant across job functions and roles.
- Communication
- Leadership
- Problem-solving
- Critical thinking
- Time management
- Teamwork
If you take two employees equally skilled in technical terms, expertise in soft skills can be the difference in the relative success and effectiveness of those two individuals.

It’s hard to nail soft skills, yet they might determine your employees’ overall success. So, it’s important that you give them adequate training to achieve their full potential.

The ability to change and learn sets people apart from machines in this era of work automation.
- Managing situations of conflict between employees and the company’s external environment
- Managing teams, departments, or entire organizations
- Progressing in a career
- They’re highly complex to absorb, put into practice, and master, which means using them effectively when needed.
- They’re not simple.
- They’re not easily manageable.
- Online learning. eLearning and mobile learning are examples of online learning that you can provide your employees to learn soft skills. For instance, branching scenarios are great for training communication skills.
- Virtual instructor-led training. For instance, a live workshop allows training employees in a specific soft skill such as negotiation with customers. The instructor might use role-playing as a teaching and practicing technique.
- Social learning. You can use this informal way of learning at the workplace to teach collaboration. By using social apps, for instance, you can train your employees to collaborate on example small-scale projects.
- Coaching or mentoring at the workplace. Particularly adequate to leadership and communication training, this delivery method is highly customizable to the employee.
We tend to think that they’re part of our personality and we’re either natural at them or not. Soft skills are teachable! And learnable! Training can develop soft skills in employees. It is possible to become better communicators, problem solvers, or critical thinkers, even if it doesn’t come naturally.

We can help you design the most effective training. Then, your employees should practice and commit to becoming better at the soft skills you teach them.

Case studies

Check out how we’ve taken inspired ideas and transformed them into workable realities for our clients.

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Sony Music ILT Conversion

Sony was spending a lot of their training budget on logistics. From taking time off work to paying for travel, it was clear that their typical live instructor-led training wasn’t the most efficient use of funds. ELM helped Sony convert their robust training program into a video-based approach without losing out on the emotional connection and social interaction of more traditional methods.

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