What Is the Gap in Soft Skills?

The gap in soft skills is the growing divide between the interpersonal skills employers seek and the actual skills job-seekers can bring to the table.Soft skills involve abilities like communication, leadership, teamwork, adaptability, and more. And each of these is becoming increasingly important for the workplace.

A LinkedIn survey revealed, however, that while 92% of managers believe that soft skills are more important than ever, over 89% can’t find candidates who have them. This goes to show just how big that gap in soft skills is!

Why Is There a Gap in Soft Skills?

There’s no single culprit behind the widening gap in soft skills. Rather, a few different factors have a hand in it.
So far, employers mostly emphasized hard skills and work experience as job requirements. Since these qualities guaranteed a job offer, the workforce became highly technical.
This trend bled into educational institutions, too. Many schools and universities emphasize theory or hard skills for certain industries, but these alone aren’t enough to equip graduates to handle the work environment.
Students who passed their exams with flying colors entered the job market without knowing how to navigate conflict, work on projects with tight deadlines, or deal with difficult clients.
Additionally, generational differences can contribute to the growing gap in soft skills. Younger generations have had earlier digital access and thus have different ideas about online communication.
For example, Millennials and Gen Z are a lot more used to brief, casual communication compared to older generations. But, at the same time, their style of texting and emailing can come off as unprofessional. At the other end of the spectrum, older generations might come off as too formal and detailed, which might not be the most efficient approach.
Finally, it’s important to remember that businesses are evolving rapidly. More and more routine tasks are being automated, so the value of uniquely human skills, like conflict resolution and problem-solving, is skyrocketing.