RE-THINKING Your Organization’s Soft Skills Training · RE-THINKING Your Organization’s Soft Skills Training About Brandon Hall Group Brandon Hall Group is a HCM research and

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT

RE-THINKING Your Organization’s Soft Skills Training

© 2017 Brandon Hall Group. Licensed for Distribution by OpenSesame. 2

RE-THINKING Your Organization’s

Soft Skills Training

TABLE OF CONTENTSAbout the Study 3What are Soft Skills? 4Learning Budget by Training Type 5Content Budget 6Content is Changing 8Content Sources 9Why Companies Turn to Third-Party Providers 11Mobile Content 12Key Takeaways 14About OpenSesame 15About Brandon Hall Group 16

Sources of all data in this report are: 2017 Brandon Hall Group State of Talent Acquisition Study (n=210), 2017 Brandon Hall Group Recruitment Marketing Study (n=273), 2017

Brandon Hall Group Workforce Management Measurement and Analytics Study (n=247), 2016 Talent Acquisition Technology Study (n=314).




About the Study

The content for this eBook is largely derived from Brandon Hall Group’s 2017 Learning Content Study. completed in August 2017.

ABOUT THE STUDY

73%

17%

6%

4%

US/Canada

EMEA

APACLatin America/South America

31 Industries

28 Countries226

Small, Mid-Size, and Large Organizations

57% 25% 40%below 500employees

500 - 5,000employees

5,000+employees

39%19%16%

Learning Professional

Head of Learning/LD

Executive/Senior Leader

Global Responses

10%

8%4%

Individual Contributors

Technical/Business Managers

Head of HR/Talent

4% HR Professional



Soft Skills TrainingWHAT ARE SOFT SKILLS?

Soft skills are seen as a synonym for “people skills.” The term describes those personal attributes that indicate a high level of emotional intelligence.

Soft skills cover a wide range of capabilities. In a business environment where an organization’s people strategy is critical to its success, employee experience and creating a great workplace culture are top priorities. Soft skills, therefore, are more important than ever before because they have become the very fabric of our organizations. They determine how we communicate, collaborate and engage each other, and how we approach our work.

What are Soft Skills?

• Communication • Optimism• Humor • Empathy• Coaching• Collaboration• Negotiation• Situational

awareness

• Self-awareness• Listening Skills• Flexibility• Adaptability• Critical thinking




18%

Learning Budget by Training Type

0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

Soft skills as an individual budget item account for, on average, about 10% of the learning budget, according to Brandon Hall Group’s 2017 Training Bench-marking Study. However, if you also include leadership skills as soft skills, which most people do, as well as team development skills, soft skills account for more than one-third of the learning budget.

14%11%

10%10%

8%6%6%

5%4%4%

3%

Leadership

Technical skills

Compliance/regulatoryProduct/service

knowledgeSoft skills

Team development

Individual competencies

SalesGeneral business

acumenOther

HR legal

Ethics

LEARNING BUDGET BY TRAINING TYPE




In fact, more than half of organizations are spending at least 20% of their budget on learning content and, as indicated earlier, about one-third of the content is soft-skills related. So this is a sizable investment that can have a big impact on the organization.

Content Budget

CONTENT BUDGET (as a percentage of learning budget)

23%

25%17%

19%

16%

0-9% of budget 10-19% of budget 20-25% of budget 26-49% of budget 50%+ of budget

% of budget organizations are spending on learning content



Soft Skills TrainingExpect the percentage of learning budget spent on content to increase31%

So this raises some critical strategic questions ….

There is no better area of learning to target for this type of self-analysis than soft skills, where there is rich content of all shapes and sizes available.

With investment in content already

expensive and likely to increase, what

should your spending priorities be?

How much content should be produced

internally with hourly or salaried staff, and how much should be outsourced to third-

party providers, many of which specialize in specific areas, such as

soft skills?

Should you invest in making more

learning accessible anytime, anywhere, by mobile device?




Content is Changing

One of the big shifts in learning is the types of content being produced. Formal learning used to dominate. While in 2017 still almost half of learning content is formal (classroom, virtual classroom), the percentage has dropped by more than 16 percentage points in just the last couple of years alone.

When it comes to soft skills specifically, organizations need to think how much training should still be formal, and how much should be experiential and informal. Soft skills often take practice and require coaching, so shifting more learning to experiential content, including simulations, deserves serious consideration.

46%40%

Formal: primarily instructor-led, course-based learning events, as well as published materials and academic institutions

Informal: learning that takes place typically in an unscheduled, ad hoc form, typically through peer to peer collaboration and social networking

Experiential: learning that involves hands-on experiences, such as on-the-job training, action learning, job rotation, role play, simulations, etc.

CONTENT IS CHANGINGNow Future

Formal

Informal

Experiential

26%30%

28%30%




Now let’s take a closer look at sourcing by content type:

Content Sources

45% 13% 12% 4%Create more than half their content

in-house

Have more than half of their content

custom built

Purchase more than half their content off the

shelf

Get more than half of their content

from an aggregator

CONTENT SOURCES

Focus for a moment on the second column, which shows the percentage of content developed mostly or entirely in-house. 47% of organizations are using mostly in-house content for soft skills – this is 12 percentage points higher than leadership development, another type of soft skill. Let’s look at how two companies are succeeding by using third-party content.




Content Sources

While it certainly makes sense for some training types to be produced in-house – such as job-specific technical skills and products and services knowledge – soft skills is an area where there is rich third-party content.

At People’s United, a New England regional bank, course selection was limited to fundamentals needed to work at the bank. A far greater scope of training was needed, so People’s turned to OpenSesame.

The J.M. Smucker Company, a manufacturer

of food products, needed to design and deliver a wide

variety of training to 8,000 employees in multiple

states. OpenSesame delivered mobile-friendly

courses for warehouse employees and remote

workers.

CONTENT SOURCES




Why Companies Turn to Third-Party Providers

WHY COMPANIES TURN TO THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERSThere are many drivers for companies like People’s United and Smuckers to use third-party content providers. Here is what survey respondents told us were their top reasons for outsourcing content development:

Lack of in-house capabilities

Staffing capacity

Lack of in-house SMEs

Faster development times

Of course, there are also challenges with third-party providers …

These are all legitimate concerns. But let’s look at this from a different perspective. Research shows that employees are already reaching out beyond the organization for content; they are surfing the net and finding all sorts of content on the web. Some of it is good, and some of it is undoubtedly content you would prefer they not use.

If people are not finding what they want within your company resources, they are not shy about looking elsewhere. So it might be a good strategy to be more open-minded about outside content providers. This way you at least have

DEVELOPERS AGGREGATORS MOOCs

• Cost• Lack of

experience• Quality

• Not enough relevancy

• Old content• Integration

• Interactivity• Completions• Quality

50% 47% 44% 35%




Mobile Content

some control. Again, we are not talking about all types of content – certain types definitely need in-house attention. But for soft skills, your employees are already Googling away looking for content. So you might as well offer content that you have had some input in selecting and curating.

MOBILE CONTENTThe other trend organizations should take into consideration is the use of mobile content. More than one-third of organizations still offer no content via mobile device. Another 30% only offer content via a mobile app or apps. Think about how employees use their mobile devices in their personal lives. They are glued to them. So having your learning content – whether it is soft skills or other material – is critical for active engagement in your content.

Not accessible via mobile Available via mobile app/apps

Built with responsive/adaptive design Both responsive and available via apps

35%

30%

21%

14%

How Organizations Make Learning Available on Mobile Devices



Soft Skills TrainingKEY TAKEAWAYS

The content landscape is only going to get more complex, but that also creates many options beyond in-house content development.

Identify internal capabilities and focus on the internal strengths.

Determine which content needs to be produced internally and what needs to be found elsewhere.

A modern content strategy should be to find solutions that meet the changing content needs and tastes of learners, and focus internal resources as much as possible on priorities such as learning strategy, linking learning to performance, and coordinating with other talent processes.

Key Takeaways




About OpenSesame

About OpenSesame

With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options fromOpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer yourelearning courses.

For more information, please visitwww.opensesame.com.




About Brandon Hall GroupBrandon Hall Group is a HCM research and advisory services firm that provides insights around key performance areas, including Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition, and HR/Workforce Management.

With more than 10,000 clients globally and 20 years of delivering world-class research and advisory services, Brandon Hall Group is focused on developing research that drives perfor-mance in emerging and large organizations, and provides strategic insights for executives and practitioners responsible for growth and business results.

Authors and ContributorsClaude Werder ([email protected]) wrote this report. He is the Vice President of Research Operations and Principal HCM Analyst at Brandon Hall Group. His responsibilities include overseeing Brandon Hall Group’s team of analysts, directing research priorities, content quality assurance, and producing the annual HCM Excellence Conference.

Carol Clark ([email protected]) is the Copy Editor at Brandon Hall Group and edited this report.

Melissa Benavides ([email protected]) is the Creative and Events Manager at Brandon Hall Group and created the graphics and layout for this report.

About Brandon Hall Group

mailto:daria.friedman%40brandonhall.com?subject=



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RE-THINKING Your Organization’s Soft Skills Training · RE-THINKING Your Organization’s Soft Skills Training About Brandon Hall Group Brandon Hall Group is a HCM research and