Soft Skills for Business Success

Soft skill-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030. DeakinCo. asked Deloitte Access Economics to assess the importance of obtaining and measuring soft skills to better understand areas that need to be improved in the Australian workforce and businesses.

A workforce with a broad mix of skills is crucial for business success and national prosperity. Businesses with more skilled staff have higher rates of innovation and productivity. And academic literature has found a consistent relationship between human capital and economic growth.

But do we fully understand the workforce skills necessary for success? Soft skills are also referred to as employability skills, enterprise skills and they are transferable between industries and occupations. They include things like communication, teamwork, and problem solving, as well as emotional judgement, professional ethics and global citizenship.

Quick facts:

2/3 jobs will be soft skill intensive by 2030

Soft skills of employees could increase revenue by more than $90,000

Soft skill intensive jobs will grow faster than other jobs

42% of businesses need leadership skill development for the digital future

The level of soft skills of employees account for of the productivity gap between the best and worst performing firms

Recruiting for candidates with the right skills costs $7 billion annually 

Businesses spend $4 billion on training and developing employees every year