The secret sauce of Human Skills

Uncovering who we are beyond our hard skills can have a shockingly positive impact to learning and attrition

Traditionally the fit of a human to a job or up-skilling path has been based on experience and education. The hard skills that are tangible, in many cases that can be authenticated and so in essence it appears to be straightforward to assess a person’s potential for a task, vocational learning or job right? ......Wrong.

Human Skills undervalued 

Let's take two people, John and Mary both have completed their schooling, went on to achieve an International Business degree and for the past 3 years have worked in Software Sales for enterprise companies targeting the banking industry. You would think that the predicted outcome for success in the next job or completing further education would be similar but the reality is we are made up of more than the hard skills we acquire. 

Human Skills, core values or competencies are the important intangibles that must not be overlooked when it comes to skills matching for new opportunities in work, learning and promotion. If our personality, behaviours and drive have such an influence on our job and learning outcomes then it is a flaw in our jobs and learning systems that they get such little attention. 

A lack of Human skill definitions

The second challenge is the articulation of human skills especially for Graduates starting out. Am I a team player or a good communicator, patient or inpatient? How can you assess yourself accurately and connect it with a skills taxonomy that is universal? The education on soft skills to ensure a good and accurate representation can have a tremendous impact on career paths and life long learning. 

Human Skills insights left out

Even when we start to understand the value of human skills in many cases the mapping and matching technology is excluding the assessment and measurement to provide a more inclusive skills match for work and learning opportunities. Traditional job boards typically rely on keyword matching, do not allow for soft skills guidance and matching to truly gauge the potential for work and learning opportunities. 

The impact of all of this is really a lost opportunity for companies wishing to attract, invest, promote and retain incredible talent. For the individual it can lead to undervaluing your true potential. So what’s the answer that enterprise and even universities can lead on?

Integrate human (soft) skills assessments

The roll out of behavioural and personality assessment tools like Predictive Index, SHL, Myers Briggs can help uncover the intangible skills of the people you work and learn with. It can also help to build the soft skills profile of future stars by understanding the full skills profile of current successful leaders. 

Educate on Human Skill self assessment

Supporting graduates and early career candidates in understanding how to articulate the soft skills that truly reflect who they are, their personality and the experiences they have acquired both in education and extracurricular activities. 

Ensure Human Skills are captured in your learning and talent technology

Forget CVs and introduce Digital Skills Passports that are self managed and empower the individual to have a profile that fully represents who they are and encompasses all of their hard and soft skills. (Small plug - its what we do at Abodoo)

Im summary with over 75% of businesses under threat amid a global productivity crisis, this is the time to double down on the human element and work out the ingredients to this secret sauce of Human Skills. The enterprises and universities that do this will be the innovators of tomorrow with an abundance of talent and students.

By 

Vanessa Tierney 

CEO Abodoo

If you would like to know more about how Abodoo support companies in this space, you can watch this 2 min Skills Audit video for Enterprise and Education 

We create the  Digital Skills Passport with QR Code for Universities and Enterprise that is game changing for learning and work opportunities.

Abodoo is an inclusive skills mapping and matching technology for the new world of work and learning. We map and match on skills first integrating to existing technologies to support the management and investment of your greatest asset, the skills of people. 

To arrange a meeting simply PM me. 

Sources https://hrnews.co.uk/three-quarters-of-businesses-under-threat-amid-global-productivity-crisis/