If you have not yet read my rant regarding soft skills, aka power skills, in our latest trends piece, I recommend you do that now (before I really get mad). Numerous job listings have lessened, and in some cases, eliminated specialized degree qualifications for high-ranking positions with even higher salary offerings.
At ten years old, choosing a Super Smash Bros character was hard enough (cue music). Eight years later, you have to decide which three letter degree sounds most fun to play with, not just for today, but for the rest of your life. And let’s throw in a $50K+ contract, just for fun.
Student loan debt has doubled since the 2008 recession.
While the demand for that hard-earned BBA/ BFA/ BSA degree is still high, continuing a higher education is an unrealistic expectation for many individuals due to cost and inflation. However, many companies have found that while some of their best employees have little to no credentials, they possess qualities that many “scholars” have trouble grasping. Many employers are having trouble finding college graduates with developed skills, such as common sense.
There are other ways to develop essential skills that are not easily taught in a classroom. Employees with the ability to communicate well and problem solve are huge assets to a team, leading improvements within company culture.
While an ideal candidate has a balance of both hard and power skills, it’s usually easy to upskill employees that have a willingness to learn. This makes them good candidates and great employees. Taking advantage of your employee engagement platform can be a great way to identify, improve and reward employees with these skills. Here’s how:
Surveys, polls + user ideas: Listening + problem solving
Employees are a valuable resource for gathering data and suggestions. When deciding on new features or office etiquettes that directly affect employee workflow, make sure to ask their opinion before making any drastic changes. Surveys and polls are great for time sensitive projects. Easily publish a vote and collect responses all from the dashboard
Keeping an open dialogue between you and your employees creates trust and can bring awareness to underlying issues that may be floating under the radar. Build a “user idea” box as an open forum for employees that have solutions. Benefit from their creative problem solving skills. When your employees feel heard and valued, workplace productivity and efficiency increases.
Badges + certificates: Leadership + loyalty
Allow employees to show off their accomplishments by rewarding them with digital badges that can be customized and assigned to tiers. Upload or request custom, printable certificates directly to the platform and keep on hand for recognition. Automate years of service with software rules, trigger emails and predefined point amounts to make commemorating employee loyalty simple and rewarding.
Making accomplishments public encourages leadership qualities and develops confidence linked to peer-to-peer recognition. Consistent rewards promote brand loyalty. Personalized badges and certificates motivate and inspire your employees to perform at their very best.
Announcement modules + trigger notifications: Communication + time management
The Hub activity feed is for connecting managers and employees. Keep employees up to date with the newest software updates and product features. Publishing announcements in one, centralized platform keeps all employees on the same page, throughout departments and within the whole organization.
Trigger notifications allow managers to update their employees as teams or individuals. One-on-one check-in’s are easy to manage, schedule and update within the platform. This allows effortless communication regarding deadlines, meetings and scheduling. Soft skills like accountability and team building are rewarded.
Rewardian loves to celebrate the best of you and your employees. We make sure to personalize your experience and design a platform around your wants and needs. While these are some of our favorite ways to take advantage of our systems, we would love to know what your most used features are and how you use them to promote engaged behavior.
Check out our recognition and rewards platform which provides organizations of all sizes with simple, customizable solutions to engage and inspire employees to perform their best.
See our pricing or talk to one of our experts today.
