An important topic, still underestimated - Training

The importance of employee training has convinced more than one employer who, faced with a problem such as communication in a team, reached out for outside help to companies specializing in this subject. As in any industry - there are reliable companies offering quality services and those a little less so. This usually determines further willingness to undertake training, when the employer comes across a company from the first group and is not discouraged, and seeing the expected results will convince himself to raise the competence of his team through training. No entrepreneur needs special convincing about how important an investment is a person, but everyone wants to invest in quality and not in art for art's sake.

A handful of data

Within the framework of the study entitled. "How do employers deal with the talent shortage? Development of technical skills and soft competencies," our domestic entrepreneurs are similarly willing to invest in developing the competencies of both groups. This is very good news, as soft competencies are often "left behind" in the background, but extremely important. The most preferred training courses are those that allow the acquisition of competencies in no more than 6 weeks. It is worth noting that long-term development programs bring more lasting changes - and this translates into a greater return on investment. The 70:20:10 model assumes that only 10 percent of our knowledge and skills resources are obtained and expanded through training and education. By observing other people in teams and learning just from them, we gain 20 percent, while as much as 70 percent of competencies are gained by gathering experience, i.e. performing specific tasks.

Soft competencies

Long-term development plans focus on soft competencies. For example, competencies related to project management. They require cooperation, communication, the development of certain rules that will be realistically implemented at each stage of the project by each team member. This takes time: "repetitio est mater studiorum," meaning repetition is the mother of learning. By the end of this year, accelerated soft skills courses are planned to be implemented by one in four employers, and forecasts for 2022 are worrying, as only 18% of employers declare a desire for training. Long-term training plans by the end of 2021 are planned to be implemented by 18% of entrepreneurs, while 15% declare their willingness to introduce such measures.

Training should primarily support the development of competencies, attitudes and skills needed in the organization. At the same time, it should be clearly emphasized that soft competencies help staff achieve hard results. Soft competencies are an inseparable part in the process of project implementation, in which, of course, hard competencies are also used. For this reason, effective talent management strategies orient themselves to the balanced development of both hard and soft competencies.