Providing Soft Skills Education is Key to Attracting and Retaining Top Talent

A recent survey of CEO’s, by PwC[1], has highlighted the growing concern among business leaders, who have recognised a shortage of transferable soft skills in the working population. New entrants into an organisation lack essential interpersonal, communication and business skills to be effective, productive and – even more important – to be competitive.

There is an ultra-modern and simple solution available now, today, to help you recognise and reward talent, and develop the talent pool in your company.

The Problem

To gain a lasting business benefit, it is vital for companies to attract qualified applicants in the first place and to promote loyalty among their employees in order to retain top talent. Yet, there has always been a gap between the soft skills employers want and those employees possess.

The nature of the last economic downturn profoundly changed business in many ways. To prosper in this climate, businesses needed to adapt by revising their corporate strategy and focusing on training and personnel development. A range of personnel development programmes was introduced, which have since greatly contributed to improving performance in the workplace, thus increasing the success of a company.

Many businesses use performance-related rewards to incentivize development, recognising people as investments, who possess unique skills and can acquire further qualifications on the job. Numerous studies indicate that this development is gaining in importance.

What Do Businesses Think?

In a recent survey, some 66% of CEOs think that the top two priorities should be:

1. A skilled, educated and adaptable workforce.
2. An adequate physical and digital infrastructure.

However, business training is associated with considerable expense and time, in addition to the difficulty of judging its effectiveness. CEOs now need and want to manage their talent pipeline and develop a culture of reward. A solution for present and future needs is here: it is both cost-effective for businesses and measurably useful for your talent pool.

What is the Solution?

Technology drives innovation – it always has done and in the global marketplace of ideas, technology has provided a solution to your business training needs to close the skills gap that is harming businesses and employees alike. It is also a great way to complement your existing workforce and work with them in a manner they will find useful.

What is needed now is a focus on training and creating a positive environment for personal and professional development to develop and retain existing talent by improving workplace culture. Bookboon provides a fully comprehensive solution: our eLibrary Solution is suitable for 100% electronic learning or blended study. This means, employees may learn at their own pace, in their own way, choosing their own methods and devices.

The Key Benefits of Bookboon’s eLibrary Solution

• Employees may go at their own pace and in their own time. A classroom removes them from the work environment and pace can only progress as fast as the slowest employee.
• eLearning delivers results much faster and more effectively than classroom-based learning.
• Improving employee soft skills will greatly benefit your business, increasing efficiency, job satisfaction and employee retention.
• Employees can skip elements they already know.
• Employees are encouraged to take charge and responsibility for their own training and realise that their development, employability and pay may depend on it.

We have over 500 eBooks immediately available to your employees that can and will improve their soft skills. Our content is produced by industry leaders and peer reviewed to make sure you get the best quality business training available today.

[1] PwC’s “Government and global CEO” report from 15 February 2016: pwc.blogs.com.