soft skills Archives - Junior Achievement of South Florida

Author: Hannah Henry
Junior Achievement USA

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the last business day of March 2021 brought a record high of 8.1 million job openings in the United States. Among those hiring, industries including accommodation and food services, state and local government education, arts, entertainment, and recreation experiences experienced the most significant workers’ demand. Of those industries, some of the hardest-hit companies were small businesses. The National Federation of Independent Business survey reported 42% of small businesses had job openings they could not fill in the month of March. With all of the job vacancies, who has the opportunity to benefit the most?

Businesses seeking workers are finding high school teens are more than willing to fill the large job openings. A new survey of teens conducted for Junior Achievement found two-thirds of 16- and 17-year-olds (68%) plan to work this summer. Their “plan to work” is paying off as an ongoing report conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a shockingly high increase of 16-to-19-year-olds filling job vacancies, the highest it’s been for this age group since 2008 at a surprising 32.8%. In April alone, 256,000 of these teens gained employment.

During the same time teens have been motivated to find a job, companies have been trying to interest workers through increased pay rates and hiring bonuses. Ultimately, both parties will mutually benefit from the supply of able teens and businesses’ demand of workers.

A Triple Payoff for Teens: Money, Work Experience, and Soft Skills

While the endless job openings provide teens with work experience and an income through their hard-earned paychecks, teens and businesses are cashing in on much more. Deemed as an essential skill set for future work, the development of soft skills may prove to be the most valuable offering of all for teens.

Through vital adjustments businesses have made to survive during the global pandemic, their focus on what skills are “ideal” or “necessary” in a new hire may have adapted. Transferable skills, like soft skills, are making it easier for those with workforce experience to prove their value across multiple job functions and perhaps industries. A 2020 study on skills employers look for conducted by Zety revealed hard skills ranked 39% in importance to employers while soft skills came in at 61%.

In the past, teens may have been overlooked due to their lack of work experience on their resumes. Yet, today, their motivation to work after a tough year and a half is providing them with endless professional opportunities that never existed before. As teen job applications come flooding in, businesses across the country are realizing the best chance they have at filling open positions is by hiring inexperienced but eager to work teens. In turn, teens are finding themselves in a unique position to further develop their soft skills all while being paid and trained on the job.

What Teens Can Expect from a Workplace Coming Out of a Pandemic

While these new worker bees won’t experience the pre-pandemic workforce that generations grew up knowing, they will grow accustomed to various benefits that most of us are still adapting to.

A recent Monster Future of Work 2021 Global Outlook Special Report states companies have changed their policies due to the pandemic. Some of the most notable changes being remote work flexibility (43%), adaptable offsite work schedules (40%), updated health policies and protocols (36%), and staff skills training (34%). Of all these changes, 46% of hiring managers globally expect for these changes to become permanent. Without previous exposure to the pre-pandemic work environment, will teens adapt easier than those who have become accustomed to a specific traditional professional environment? Stay tuned.

By Hannah Henry, Manager of Marketing & Public Relations, Brand
Junior Achievement USA

City & Guilds CEO, Chris Jones, once said, “Unfortunately, some people believe that soft skills aren’t that important. However, almost every employer I’ve ever talked to about this disagrees. In a world where job roles are changing rapidly, soft skills will be one of the few constants…” When you think about all of the new colleagues you have met over the years, the teams you’ve worked on, and the challenges you’ve faced within your business, soft-skills are at the heart of it all.

While some might argue that soft skills hold lesser value to a business, a report from International Association of Admin Professionals, OfficeTeam and HR.com reveals 67% of HR managers reported they would hire a candidate with strong soft skills, even if his or her technical skills were lacking. Why might this be? Employees with strong soft skills have the ability to grow and flourish in any environment due to the fact that they have experience and interpersonal skills that make adapting easier than those who lack such skills.

Soft skills include communications, listening, and emotional perceptivity, such as empathy and sympathy. These skills tend to reside in personal attributes, personality, and character traits, and social cues picked up throughout one’s life. These skills allow people to connect with one another by effectively “reading” those they interact with. These are not skills that are learned in a short period of time, instead, they are acquired, tuned, and even perfected throughout experiences and time.

Building Soft Skills in the Workplace

Research from the Hay Group identified managers that incorporate a range of “soft talent”, those with soft skills, in their leadership approach have been shown to increase their team performance by about 30%. Through the survey work of LinkedIn profiles of people who are getting hired at the highest rates, it was determined: creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and time management were the 5 most in-demand soft skills sought by companies in 2019. How can a company harness these skills in their workplace? The answer is not to find new candidates to fill positions. Training in these areas is available. In fact, research from MIT Sloan determined that soft skills training may improve productivity within an organization. Findings also included that such training returned roughly 250% on investment within eight months post-study.

Finding Candidates with Soft Skills

Hard skills or technical skills are easier to identify when meeting a potential employee. For the most part, the candidate will include their experience and hard skills on their resume, as well as mention them in an interview. Soft skills are not so easy to identify. When you’re looking at a possible candidate for a position, most employers are looking to ensure a person can do the job at hand. They want to have the reassurance that this individual can handle the complexity of the workload and complete crucial projects. But by focusing on only this skillset, also known as “hard skills”, employers are overlooking the underlying skills that determine how a candidate will interact with those around them, be able to connect with their peers, managers, and even clients. Not everyone develops soft skills at the same pace, but experience assists with the development. More experience can equate to building stronger skills at a faster pace compared to those who have not stayed within a position or a company for long.

Interview Questions to Ask

LinkedIn revealed that only 60% of hiring managers agree that screening for soft skills is tough, but crucial as it will determine how new hires will be able to interact with your team. The professional networking platform identified 6 key soft skills and questions to ask to decode how a candidate’s level of soft skills.

1. Adaptability

Ask the candidate to discuss a time when they were asked to do something they haven’t done before, how they reacted and what they learned.

2. Culture Fit

Explore what the interviewee is looking for in a job by asking what three things are most important to them in a position or workplace environment.

3. Collaboration

Have the candidate give examples of when they had to work with someone who was challenging to work with, how they handled working with this particular individual, and what the outcome was.

4. Leadership

Ask the interviewee to discuss when something significant didn’t go according to plan at work, what was their role in the project or task, and the final result.

5. Growth Potential

Have the candidate discuss how they handled a crisis or problem when their manager was unavailable and who they consulted with to determine the solution.

6. Prioritization

Ask the interviewee to tell you about a time when they had to juggle several projects at the same time, how they were able to manage their time and the final result.

To learn more about how students can develop their soft skills to prepare for the workforce, check out JA Career Success^®!

In addition, Junior Achievement of South Florida offers its program JA Career Bound to high school students in South Florida. JA Career Bound is a cutting-edge, skills-building leadership program where participants learn the skills necessary to succeed in today’s workforce.

After an opening retreat, students meet once a month for program days focused on specific industries. Students visit some of South Florida’s premier businesses to learn firsthand about the career opportunities and what companies are looking for in future employees. Students learn from top executives who share their journeys to success.

We use interactive JA curriculum to teach key work skills, including communication, critical thinking, goal setting, interviewing, personal branding, problem-solving, public speaking, resume building and teamwork. At the end of the year, students will have the opportunity to put their skills into action by participating in various paid internships with job shadowing. For further details, including registration, CLICK HERE.

All posts tagged: soft skills

Job Vacancies Reaching An All-Time High & What It Means For Teens

A Triple Payoff for Teens: Money, Work Experience, and Soft Skills

What Teens Can Expect from a Workplace Coming Out of a Pandemic