Complementarity of Soft Skills with Technical Skill Accumulation
Firms often treat soft skills and technical skills as distinct, isolated training investments, neglecting how interpersonal confidence and communication drive frontline workers to actively seek out technical skill development.
Picture this
Think of a worker having a toolkit with complex machinery manual tools but being too hesitant to ask the shop supervisor for instructions on how to use them. Soft skills training acts like giving the worker a loudspeaker and confidence to request technical upskilling, allowing them to operate more complex tools and unlock higher productivity.
What the evidence says
Trained workers were 15.8 percentage points more likely to request technical skill development training (p < 0.01; control mean = 24.9%), leading to assignment to more complex operations (SAM increased by 0.0384 minutes, p < 0.05), while efficiency gains were largest among machine operators with technical skills (+4.95 percentage points, p < 0.10).
- Who
- N = 621 surveyed female garment workers (survey sub-sample of 2,703 total RCT participants) in Bengaluru, India.
- How
- Randomized controlled trial (RCT) with survey measures of technical training requests, operation complexity (Standard Allowable Minutes), and efficiency mediation analysis.
What to do
Pair workplace soft skills training with clear request channels for technical upskilling to encourage workers to voluntarily seek technical training and manage higher-complexity operations.
From the source
"They are also more likely to proactively increase their stock of hard skills by requesting technical training and to be assigned to more complex tasks as a result, but exhibit greater productivity despite this assignment to more complex tasks."
Returns_to_On_the_job_Soft_Skills_Training_Adhvarya_Kala_Nyshadham.pdf