Soft skills

Definition

Soft skills refer to a set of interpersonal, emotional and communication skills that enable people to interact effectively with others, adapt to various situations and contribute positively to a harmonious work environment.

Unlike hard skills, which are specific and measurable technical skills, soft skills are more abstract and subjective qualities that have to do with character, behavior and personal interactions.

These abilities, also called “life skills”, are the result of each person’s socio-cultural background and experiences. Soft skills have been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the abilities to implement flexible and positive behavior that allows individuals to manage everyday challenges”.

Soft skills: What are they

The non-exhaustive list presents the soft skills most commonly requested in the world of work:

Problem solving: is the ability to understand, manage and solve problems.
Critical thinking: is characterized by the ability to use logic and reasoning, analyze possible solutions and their advantages and disadvantages.
Team working: it is the ability to work on a project together with other people in an effective and harmonious way to achieve a common goal.
Time management: Time management is a process of planning and controlling time that allows you to optimize the productivity, performance and efficiency of business processes through the use of time management techniques, tools and methods.
Emotional intelligence: it is the ability to recognize and understand one's own emotions and those of others so as to be able to manage them consciously and choose the most suitable and effective way of interacting with others.
Flexibility: it is the ability to adapt to different situations, the ability to find the best way to deal with new contexts and new work objectives.
Communication skills: it is the ability to interact with others by mastering both verbal and non-verbal language. It is a very important but also complex soft skill as it brings into play sensitivity, empathy and the relationship with others. It can also be defined as the ability to convey and share ideas and information in a clear and concise manner with different interlocutors and in different contexts.

Why they are important

Despite their connection to everyone’s character, personality and experiences, soft skills can be taught and learned through specific techniques and dedicated exercises.

The European Union has long been committed to the development of key skills linked to transversal skills with the aim of improving citizens’ participation in social life but also their business, networking and professional development skills (see European skills agenda).

In fact, numerous studies (here and here) demonstrate that the promotion of soft skills in the working context brings benefits within the working environment, improving decision-making practices, productivity, meeting deadlines and stress management.

The importance of skills development is even more evident following the pandemic crisis.

In fact, we are witnessing an increasingly complex evolution of the world of work from an IT and technological point of view: the development of artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced automation are a fact and are accelerating the transformation of work. This has important implications for the supply and demand of skills. The first to suffer from these changes are mainly older and unskilled workers, whose jobs are already threatened by automation and the socio-ecological transformation towards a green economy.

However, the Covid-19 emergency has shown how young people must also be able to deal with major upheavals that are not always fully predictable. The low- and medium-skilled service sector has suffered significant damage as a result of the pandemic crisis. As a result, many workers will need to acquire new skills to maintain their jobs and the competitiveness of their companies.

Main advantages of learning soft skills in the workplace:

Higher quality (service, product…)

Increase in efficiency and productivity

Better knowledge transfer within the work team

Increase in job satisfaction

Increase in innovation capacity

Soft skills and the tourism sector

Soft skills help people work effectively by making the best use of their emotional characteristics and technical knowledge. They also help improve the way you interact with other people in various social contexts. Furthermore, the ability to complete one’s objectives on time allows one to increase job satisfaction and one’s personal motivation.As regards the tourism sector, there is a constant and rapid change in the working environment, in customer expectations, in the ways of producing and exchanging information and in the type of services required, especially due to rapid technological and IT evolution. For this reason, the development of skills regarding specific software is fundamental for competitiveness in the travel and holiday sector. But we cannot forget that tourism is above all made up of people. It’s about communicating, establishing relationships of trust, presenting your business and ideas to the traveler in a persuasive but honest way. The human element therefore remains important.

In this course, three soft skills considered essential for those working in the tourism sector are identified (time management, problem solving, communication skills). This evaluation was carried out through a fact-finding survey aimed at professionals in the sector through a specific questionnaire distributed in Italy, Hungary and Greece. The results of this investigation guided the development of the course and allowed us to focus on the issues considered essential by those who face the challenges of the tourism market every day.