Which concept is easier to learn?

• How to operate a point-of-sale (POS) system, or
• how to deliver exceptional customer service?

It’s a tricky question. Employees come to their roles with different experiences, talents and interests. Plus, everyone learns at a different pace. That said, technical skills are well defined. For example, there are repeatable steps to completing a retail transaction. The POS user manual is available to reference if an associate can’t remember which button to press when processing a return. Objective metrics like void rate and scans per minute are used to determine performance quality.

People skills are more precarious. A broad concept like customer service includes a variety of skills. Associates must be great communicators, capable of demonstrating empathy, manage their time effectively — the list goes on. They may reference job aids with quick tips, but associates can’t rely on a checklist to deliver exceptional service. It takes time and effort to build these durable skills. This is why “soft” is such a poor way to describe them. They’re actually some of the hardest skills to develop and measure.

Lack of Time = Lack of Development

Soft skills, also known as people skills, can make or break the customer experience. Unfortunately, front-line workers are rarely afforded the time to develop these skills before they are thrust into the operation. With high turnover, tight labor budgets and demanding customers, managers must hire, onboard and train new employees as quickly as possible. Retail and food service workers are lucky to get two or three days of training before they’re on their own. Contact center agents might get a week or two in the classroom before taking calls.

Most of this onboarding time is consumed by unavoidable topics like compliance, job processes and product knowledge. New hires may complete a collection of “People Skills 101” online courses and struggle through a few uncomfortable role-plays to pick up some best practices. They certainly can’t master complex skills like communication, resilience and adaptability in a few hours. Unfortunately, customers don’t care if someone has been on the job for five years or five minutes. They expect seamless performance, and they’re happy to spend their hard-earned money elsewhere if they’re disappointed.

Poor Development = Risk

Front-line workers keep learning after onboarding, but most of this skill development is “trial by fire.” They do the job the best they can, learn by making as few mistakes as possible and rely on peers for help. It’s common for new employees to quit days (or hours) into the job out of frustration. Plus, this reliance on under-prepared workers puts the business at risk. In the past, companies looked to tenured employees to pick up the slack. However, the historic turnover they’ve experienced over the past few years has resulted in wide-scale brain drain. New employees are now relied on more than ever. This makes their soft skills gaps even more problematic.

It’s a sticky situation. Front-line workers’ time is micro-managed, so they usually can’t decide to take additional training on their own. They’re paid by the hour, so they can’t do extra training off the clock. Managers need their teams to perform, but they can’t spare the time and budget for more training. Learning and development (L&D) wants to provide learning opportunities, but they’re not allowed to interrupt operations.

Accelerating the development of soft skills takes more than a new program or off-the-shelf content catalog. It requires organizations to re-imagine front-line learning in the context of today’s workplace.

Making Skill Development Part of the Job

Traditional learning programs, such as onboarding and on-the-job training, kickstart the skill building process and establish performance expectations. But they’re just the beginning of a continuous learning process. Rather than forcing workers to figure things out on their own — and develop bad habits along the way — companies must embed learning opportunities within the everyday workflow.

• Designate peer trainers to provide performance support in the flow of work and act as a critical post-training crutch.
• Make sure front-line managers have the time, knowledge and insights needed to coach employees and provide feedback against a consistent set of expectations.
• Provide support resources, such as job aids and quick tips, that can be accessed on the job through company-issued and personal devices.
• Give employees opportunities to practice applying their skills in a safe environment using digital scenarios completed in less than five minutes per shift.
• Share stories of employees applying their skills to solve problems and delight customers during huddle meetings via digital communication.

Use these tactics to make skill development a continuous, nondisruptive part of the job for every front-line worker. Leverage data from these learning activities along with operational metrics to adapt learning and close individual skills gaps.

Adopting a New Learning Mindset

It doesn’t matter if you call them — people skills, soft skills, human skills or power skills: They’re the most difficult capabilities to develop within a front-line team. Unfortunately, these employees can’t step away from the operation or spend extra hours working through an online course catalog. The only way to build exceptional people skills is to make continuous learning part of every shift.

This means adopting a new mindset as well as some new tactics. You’ll be amazed by what a few minutes of learning per day can do to your workforce’s long-term performance. And your employees and customers will thank you.