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The Soft Skills Gap Isn’t Going Away
CTDO Magazine

The Soft Skills Gap Isn’t Going Away

Friday, March 15, 2019

The chasm between organizations' current and needed capabilities will hit young workers the hardest.

Four in five talent development professionals report a skills gap in their organizations, and 78 percent expect their organizations will have a skills gap in the future. That's according to the 2018 Bridging the Skills Gap: Workforce Development and the Future of Work, which marks the Association for Talent Development's sixth skills gap report. In addition to reviewing research from outside ATD, the whitepaper explores findings from the 2018 ATD Skills Gap Survey, which queried 304 talent development professionals whose companies are headquartered in the United States.

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ATD defines skills gap as "a significant gap between an organization's current capabilities and the skills it needs to achieve its goals and meet customer demand." An organization with significant skills gaps risks failing to meet customer demand and may not be able to grow or prepare for the future of work.

Not surprisingly, technology shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution plays a keen role in emerging skills gaps. In fact, according to LinkedIn's 2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report, we can expect to see a 190 percent global increase in jobs that demand workers skilled in artificial intelligence. But despite the rise of AI-related jobs, LinkedIn predicts the largest skills gaps will surround soft skills such as leadership, communication, and critical thinking.

This tracks with responses to the ATD survey, which finds that soft skills are the main concern across industries. Sixty-six percent of respondents identified communication and interpersonal skills as the top missing skill set. This was followed closely by critical thinking and problem-solving skills (65 percent), and managerial and supervisory skills came in as the third-highest need for organizations at 61 percent. Slightly more than half of ATD survey respondents (52 percent) said their company faced a current leadership skills gap, and 47 percent expect one in the future.

In Bridging the Skills Gap, talent development executives expect this soft skills gap to hit younger workers the hardest, reporting that 50 percent of Millennials and 59 percent of Gen Z workers will suffer skills gaps. However, Gen Zers disagree with this prediction.

Gen Z respondents to a LinkedIn survey believe hard skills are—and will continue to be—more significant to their performance. LinkedIn polled 400 HR professionals, including L&D experts, and 2,000 Gen Z members to assess trends in learning and identify any gaps. Nearly two in three Gen Zers (62 percent) stated that hard skills have changed faster than ever and are more important than soft skills. Conversely, L&D leaders believe that soft skills are a chief concern, and 61 percent believe that "Gen Z will need extra support for the development of soft skills to navigate a changing world of work."

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Bridging the Skills Gap notes that "Although Millennials and Generation Z have grown up with computers, apps, and the Internet—making them ‘digital natives' who are unafraid of new technologies and thus able to learn software and systems quickly—they tend not to possess important soft skills, such as communication and teamwork, which are not stressed in classroom learning."

Current and Future Skills Gaps

Source: Bridging the Skills Gap: Workforce Development and the Future of Work, ATD, 2018

Read more from CTDO magazine: Essential talent development content for C-suite leaders.

About the Author

Ryann K. Ellis is an editor for the Association of Talent Development (ATD). She has been covering workplace learning and performance for ATD (formerly the American Society for Training & Development) since 1995. She currently sources and authors content for TD Magazine and CTDO, as well as manages ATD's Community of Practice blogs. Contact her at [email protected]

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