Employers expect their staff, especially new employees, to have a level of business soft skills in order to do their jobs. In a recent survey, 100 employers were asked. “What are the top three soft skills needed by your staff?” The response was almost unanimous revealing the following answers: Verbal Communications, Workplace Relations and Written Communications. Let’s look into these three business soft skills. The first skill is Verbal Communications. All good employees have to know how to verbally communicate in a clear and concise manner. It is important to be able to speak to all levels of peers, customers and upper management. Listening is just as important as talking. If you don’t listen properly you are going to miss something important. It is also imperative to have proper phone etiquette in business. Always answer the phone with a smile on your face. It will come through to the end of the other line. Never leave the caller confused or still having questions and always communicate accurately. The second soft skills needed in business is “Workplace Relations” which covers a number of areas such as working with others, reputation, dressing for success, attending meetings, ethics, professional job behavior and managing your time just to mention a few. It is important to know these skills when working in today business world. You must learn these skills like you would learn all the rules for baseball. If you try to play baseball without knowing the rules, you won’t last long. The same goes for business. If you don’t follow the rules of business, you will be out of a job. Your employer wants employees who get along with others and follow the rules! Written Communications is the third and final areas of soft skills that your employer wants you to know. In business you will be writing emails, reports and presentations. Business emails are not the same as your personal email. You should never use abbreviations or emoticons in business emails. They should be more like business letters. Most managers want to have reports sent to them that are short and accurate. It is best to use bullets for most of the information. You many need to explain a bullet in which you will need to write a short paragraph but other than that, keep to bullets. When creating a PowerPoint Presentation never exceed five points per slide. When giving the pitch reveal one point at a time so the audience does not read ahead and not hear what you are saying. Jim Stedt is a partner at The Business SoftSkills Company (GetSoftSkillsNow.Com) located in Santa Ana, California. They provide job readiness and workforce success videos for education, business, prisons and individual use. Training is available online, on DVD, or through an affiliate program. These products are the most complete and concise soft skills training packages now available for the price of an average college textbook.
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