Do we need to teach “people skills” to people?
Many companies provide the needed technical skills to the average employee. Skills they have determined will help them be successful. However, “people skills” are not always offered.
I once asked a senior Human Resource Executive how they train their newly promoted managers to be effective people managers. His comment was “they should already have the skills needed to be good managers.” These new managers were people who, prior to being promoted, were individual contributors.
Companies generally invest in providing training for technical skills, but do they need to provide for the development of the person on the “people side”?
Leadership IQ studied more than 20,000 new hires and 1,400 HR Executives to determine WHY new hires fail. Their results were astounding.
Leadership IQ discovered that 46% of newly-hired employees will fail within 18 months, while only 19% will achieve unequivocal success. And contrary to popular belief, technical skills are not the primary reason why new hires fail; instead, poor interpersonal skills dominate the list, flaws which many of their managers admit were overlooked during the job interview process. In fact, attitudes drive 89% of hiring failures, while technical skills account for only 11% of hiring failures.
The study found that the Top 5 reasons why new hires failed were as follows:
- Coachability (26%): The ability to accept and implement feedback from bosses, colleagues, customers and others.
- Emotional Intelligence (23%): The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions, and accurately assess others emotions.
- Motivation (17%): Sufficient drive to achieve one’s full potential and excel in the job.
- Temperament (15%): Attitude and personality suited to the particular job and work environment.
- Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the job.
If companies do not provide the people skills training, then how is the average person going to obtain these much needed skills?
Based on the study, they may end up leaving. Turnover tends to be an expensive non-solution, with the rule of thumb being the average cost of turnover to be around 30% of the annual salary. The ROI of training people skills would appear to be favorable.
As individuals, it is up to us to ensure we have the skills we need for the job or position we want. And that includes people skills. We cannot depend on companies to provide all of our development.
In today’s changing environment, business and worldly, we need to assess our skills and ensure we are still relevant and able to meet the new demands required.
We can get this development in a variety of methods. Through eLearning classes, watching videos, even personal life coaching. However, being presented the learning is only as effective as the applying of the learning and changing of behaviors.
Give us a call if you are interested in personal development. Let’s talk about how we can provide you valuable development.
To read about this LeadershipIQ Study:
Prime Leadership & Development 