Tech skills are plentiful. Sweat the soft stuff

I published this blog on LinkedIn back in August about the need for companies to apply the same standards to their soft skill hires as they would for their development or engineering roles. Enjoy!

The robots are coming - they’re unstoppable. Entire industries will fold before our very eyes.

Barely a day goes by without reading a similar headline. We’re left to wonder which one of us will succumb to the robotic funeral march, and begin the task of clearing out our desk.

But here’s a question: for every rock star developer that will supposedly take the product you’re going to launch into the stratosphere, have you put as much thought into the hiring process for the person who’s going to interact with your customers?

The latest generation of workers have been taught from an early age that the path to fulfilment can be found in a line of code, or in the intricacies of a social media platform. Naturally, as with any industry, there are some people that are so talented their technical skills can determine a product’s success or failure.

The media – indeed, the public at large - loves a story about a maverick. A rogue genius swimming against the tide; creating new product categories and redefining old ones. They’re put on a pedestal, and we see our own aspirations through theirs.

But a business truly flourishes when it hires for the calibre of person, not just the calibre of technical knowledge.

Empathy. Compassion. A desire to develop others. Tried and trusted people skills. A knowledge that a happy team, properly cared for and supported will in turn care more about your clients, produce more, stay for longer, and recommend your company to other high performers who could one day join your company.

The bias we apply for tech over soft skills is right there in the name: soft. Says who?!

In Deloitte’s widely respected Millennial Survey in 2017 – polling over 8000 millennials in 30 countries – the most important conclusion is that they value flexibility more than any other corporate benefit that might be available: the role they perform, the hours they work, and the location from where they do that work. Do we think it’s going to be the leaders of these companies with a bias towards “hard” skills that are best placed to manage these nuances?

So, the next time you cross paths with that doom merchant in the canteen talking about the rise of the robots, you could do worse than quote Isaac Newton’s famous third law about every action having an equal and opposite reaction. Let’s take caring for the elderly as just one example. As the wealthiest, healthiest retirees in history continue ageing, the Baby Boomer generation will require care and services that place an emphasis on compassion, conversation, and understanding on a daily basis. This is just one area that will be fertile ground for those with the soft skills to deliver them.

When was the last time you prioritised soft skills for your managerial hires?