Quality Soft Skills

During 2024, we connected soft skills to Quality. The term “soft skills” was coined by the U.S. Army in the late 1960s to refer to any skill that does not employ the use of machinery. Soft skills are important skills that improve our ability to work with others. Good soft skills help us build and maintain relationships at work and in our personal lives. Developing soft skills can increase confidence and help cultivate leadership skills. Working with people who have strong soft skills improves the workplace from increased productivity to increased morale and employee well-being. Conversely, a lack of soft skills is a hindrance and limits personal success, as well as that of the company.

Hard (or technical) skills are also important. Hard skills are linked to your ability to do a specific task, while soft skills are about the way you do them. The average half-life of a (hard) technical skill has been estimated as 2.5 years, but soft skills are timeless. Our clients also benefit from GES teams that are not only highly-functional technical teams, but also bring critical soft skills to the table when interacting with clients, regulators, and other project stakeholders.

When our staff and teams develop and practice effective soft skills, it creates an environment that fosters Quality outcomes. With this in mind, our Quality and Human Resources teams collaborated to build a soft skills training team, identify our top 5 soft skills, and provide company-wide training. We surveyed our staff to obtain insight on their perception of the value of soft skills at work and home, the most important soft skills, and where they felt their soft skills were strongest and weakest. In 2024, we provided training on communication, problem-solving, and adaptability via our internal GES University employee learning program. Teamwork and emotional intelligence training are planned for 2025.

Highly-functional teams are better positioned to produce the high-quality work our clients expect, and good soft skills are an essential component of our Quality culture.