Dive Brief:
- The most in-demand skill courses on Cornerstone OnDemand's platform so far in 2020 include communication, leadership, active listening, stress management, time management, unconscious bias, conflict management, project management, emotional intelligence and customer service, the company revealed as part of its preparation for Digital Learning Day.
- Cornerstone also determined that many of the top skills from 2019 were also soft skills, including aspects of all of the above; to assemble the lists, the company analyzed data from 40 million anonymous users.
- "With the inevitability of digital transformation, it's critical that we prioritize people skills development in order to embrace this change," Summer Salomonsen, head of Cornerstone Studios, said in a media release. "Learning essential work skills like conflict management and leadership will better prepare our people to thrive in a rapidly evolving world of work."
Dive Insight:
Soft skills are in demand, and they don't come cheap for employers; according to research from the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, artificial intelligence (AI) is automating certain tasks, such as credentialing and scheduling, while raising pay for jobs requiring creativity and common sense in the process. Other studies also showed that employers prize soft skills, but they might need to pay hires a premium for such skills.
Leadership skills are among the top in-demand soft skills, a PayScale study found. Employees in the study were especially interested in management and leadership training — notable since half of employees surveyed by Gartner in 2019 said they aren't confident in their leaders' ability to drive organizations into the future.
On the other hand, a LinkedIn Learning report found that creativity was the most in-demand soft skill. In fact, creativity topped the list in 2019 and again in 2020. "Organizations need people who can creatively approach problems and tasks across all business roles, from software engineering to HR," said LinkedIn. After creativity, the next most in-demand soft skills included persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and emotional intelligence.
