Closing the Soft Skills Gap Through Everyday Practice
Communication, problem-solving and collaboration are regularly described as essential workplace skills. Yet employers continue to report that they cannot find enough people who demonstrate them consistently.
The answer is not simply more recruitment or another standalone training course.
These skills develop when people have regular opportunities to practise them, receive useful feedback and reflect on what happened. Managers are central to creating those conditions, but they need time, support and a clear role in the development process.
Closing the soft skills gap is therefore not only a learning challenge. It is a management and workplace design challenge.
What the latest evidence tells us
New research commissioned by City & Guilds, covering 908 HR professionals and line managers, found that 38% of participating UK businesses believed soft skills shortages were restricting productivity and growth.
Almost two-thirds said candidates with these skills were becoming harder to find. Employers associated the gaps with operational errors, delays, higher turnover, low morale, reduced efficiency and poorer customer service.
The research, reported by People Management, focused on abilities including communication, problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability and time management.
It also identified a tension in recruitment. While 43% of the employers surveyed used AI to screen or filter applicants, 69% believed these systems could prioritise technical qualifications over the human capabilities their organisations needed.
As an employer survey commissioned by a training and qualifications provider, the findings should not be treated as a definitive measure of the whole UK economy. They do, however, capture a familiar organisational concern: the skills employers value most can be difficult to define, assess and develop.
A second article published this week considered the problem from a learning perspective. Writing in People Management, Anna Barnett argued that learning initiatives commonly build knowledge without producing a sustained change in behaviour.
That distinction matters.
Someone can understand the principles of a difficult conversation without feeling able to begin one. They can complete a course on delegation and continue doing everything themselves. They can learn a problem-solving model but abandon it when an urgent issue arises.
Knowledge is important. Behaviour changes when people can apply that knowledge in the reality of their work.
Why “soft skills” are particularly difficult to develop
The term “soft skills” can make these capabilities sound vague or secondary. In practice, they are often among the hardest skills to use well.
Consider what effective communication might involve during an ordinary working week:
- Explaining a decision that someone may dislike.
- Listening without immediately becoming defensive.
- Adjusting a message for different audiences.
- Giving specific feedback without damaging trust.
- Raising a concern with someone more senior.
- Recognising when a written message is not enough.
- Admitting that an answer is not yet available.
These are not abstract qualities that someone either possesses or lacks. They are behaviours shaped by context, confidence, relationships and previous experience.
The same applies to problem-solving. An employee may be capable of analysing a complicated issue but work in an environment where speed is rewarded more visibly than thoughtfulness. They may spot a recurring problem but lack the authority to challenge the process causing it.
A skills gap can therefore have several different causes:
- The person does not know what effective practice looks like.
- They understand it but have not practised it sufficiently.
- They lack confidence in a difficult situation.
- Their manager unintentionally discourages the behaviour.
- Workload or process makes the preferred behaviour difficult.
- Organisational incentives reward something else.
- Employees do not feel safe enough to speak, question or experiment.
Training can address some of these causes. It cannot correct all of them by itself.
Learning transfer is where development succeeds or fails
Learning transfer is the process through which someone applies learning to their work and continues using it after the formal development activity has ended.
This is often the least visible part of a programme.
It is relatively easy to record course attendance, completion rates and immediate feedback. It is harder to establish whether participants later handled conversations differently, delegated more effectively or involved colleagues in solving problems.
The period immediately after learning is particularly important. People return to established routines, full diaries and colleagues who may know nothing about what they have learned. Even a strong intention to behave differently can be displaced by the easiest familiar response.
This does not necessarily mean the training was poor or that the individual lacked commitment. It may mean the workplace gave the new behaviour nowhere to take root.
What the soft skills gap means for managers
Managers influence whether learning is treated as an event or part of the work.
They do not need to become full-time trainers. Their contribution is more practical: helping employees identify when to use a skill, creating opportunities to try it and giving feedback while the experience is still fresh.
Before the learning
A useful conversation before a course or programme can establish relevance.
Rather than asking someone to “improve their communication”, a manager might explore:
- Which conversations currently feel most difficult?
- Where do misunderstandings tend to occur?
- What would the employee like to handle with greater confidence?
- What difference would improvement make to the team or customer?
- Which forthcoming situation could provide an opportunity to practise?
This turns a general development objective into something connected to real work.
It also gives the manager a clearer idea of the support the employee may need afterwards.
During the learning
Managers do not need detailed oversight of everything an employee is learning. They do need enough understanding to reinforce it.
A short check-in might ask:
- What have you found most useful so far?
- Has anything challenged your existing approach?
- Where could you test one idea safely?
- Is there anything in our current process that might make this difficult?
The last question is important. It acknowledges that applying learning is not solely the employee’s responsibility.
After the learning
The first conversation after a programme should move beyond “How was it?”
Useful questions include:
- What is one thing you want to do differently?
- When will you have an opportunity to try it?
- What might get in the way?
- What support would be useful from me?
- How will we know whether it helped?
- When should we review what happened?
The aim is not to turn development into another reporting requirement. It is to make the next action clear enough that good intentions are not lost in the return to everyday work.
Seven ways organisations can turn learning into practice
1. Define skills through observable behaviour
Broad labels are difficult to develop and assess.
Instead of saying someone needs “better communication skills”, describe what effective communication would look like in their role. It might mean checking understanding, presenting a clear recommendation, raising risks earlier or adapting technical information for a non-specialist audience.
This makes expectations fairer and feedback more useful.
2. Start with a real workplace challenge
Learning is more likely to be applied when it addresses something participants genuinely need to handle.
Programmes can use live or realistic situations such as:
- Giving feedback about missed expectations.
- Delegating work without micromanaging.
- Responding when someone disagrees with a decision.
- Managing priorities when capacity is limited.
- Leading a team through an uncertain change.
- Raising a concern across organisational boundaries.
The purpose is not to rehearse a perfect script. It is to build the judgement and confidence needed when the real conversation is less predictable.
3. Create low-risk opportunities to practise
People need opportunities to use a skill before the most difficult version of the situation arrives.
An employee developing presentation skills might first lead part of a team meeting. Someone building coaching capability could practise using open questions in a one-to-one. A new manager could rehearse a performance conversation with a peer before holding it with an employee.
Practice makes development part of ordinary work rather than something reserved for a classroom.
4. Give managers a clear role
“Support your employee’s development” is too vague to be useful.
Managers should know what participants are learning, which behaviours the programme is intended to develop and how they can help. This might include a brief manager guide, suggested questions and agreed opportunities for practice.
The role must also be realistic. If managers are overloaded, development conversations will repeatedly lose out to immediate delivery.
5. Make feedback timely and specific
Feedback such as “You communicated well” offers encouragement but little learning.
More useful feedback identifies the behaviour and its effect:
“You explained the recommendation clearly and paused for questions. When the concern was raised, you answered immediately rather than checking what was behind it. Asking one more question there might have helped you understand the resistance.”
Specific feedback gives the employee something they can repeat or adjust.
6. Examine what the organisation rewards
An organisation may say it values thoughtful problem-solving while praising only rapid responses. It may promote collaboration while measuring performance almost entirely through individual output.
These contradictions shape behaviour more powerfully than course content.
Leadership teams should ask whether targets, processes and senior behaviour reinforce the capabilities the organisation says it wants.
7. Measure application, not just attendance
Course completion is useful administrative information. It is not evidence of changed behaviour.
Evaluation can also examine:
- How frequently participants have used the skill.
- Which situations helped or prevented application.
- Changes observed by managers, colleagues or customers.
- The quality of relevant conversations or decisions.
- Whether recurring errors, conflicts or delays have reduced.
- Which parts of the learning need reinforcement.
Not every outcome can be reduced to a simple number. A combination of operational evidence, observation and structured reflection can still provide a credible picture of progress.
Questions for managers
Managers supporting someone’s development can return to five simple questions:
- What behaviour are they trying to develop?
- Where will they have a genuine opportunity to practise it?
- What might make that behaviour difficult here?
- What feedback can I provide?
- What needs to change in the team or organisation as well as in the individual?
The fifth question protects against treating every capability problem as a personal deficit.
Questions for HR and L&D teams
When reviewing a management or soft skills programme, consider:
- Which business or workplace problem is this intended to address?
- Have the required behaviours been defined clearly?
- Were managers involved in identifying the need?
- Do participants have opportunities to practise during the programme?
- What will happen when they return to work?
- Do managers have the time and confidence to reinforce the learning?
- Which organisational barriers could prevent application?
- How will behaviour be reviewed after one, three and six months?
If the plan ends when the workshop closes, an important part of the development process is missing.
The skills exist in what people repeatedly do
Recruitment remains one way to bring new capability into an organisation. It should not become the default answer whenever communication, collaboration or problem-solving needs to improve.
Existing employees can develop these capabilities, provided they receive more than information. They need relevant practice, thoughtful feedback and a workplace that allows them to behave differently.
Managers are vital to that process, but they cannot carry it through goodwill alone. Organisations must make development part of the work, give managers a clear contribution and remove the barriers that pull people back towards familiar habits.
The soft skills gap will not close because organisations talk more often about the importance of human skills. It will close when people are helped to use them, reflect on them and practise them consistently.
Frequently asked questions
What is a soft skills gap?
A soft skills gap is the difference between the interpersonal and behavioural capabilities an organisation needs and those consistently demonstrated in practice. It can involve communication, collaboration, problem-solving, adaptability, feedback or people management.
Can soft skills be taught?
Yes, but instruction alone is rarely enough. People also need realistic practice, feedback, reflection and opportunities to apply the skill in their work. Managers and organisational conditions strongly influence whether the new behaviour lasts.
How can managers support learning transfer?
Managers can connect learning to real work, agree a specific behaviour to practise, create suitable opportunities, provide timely feedback and help remove barriers. Short follow-up conversations are often more useful than waiting for a formal review.
