Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills: What’s Desirable?

By Lynn Wiles
Bethesda Lutheran Communities

Employers describe “soft skills” as those that cannot be taught but that are intrinsic to good workers.

When polled, the three soft skill traits most often identified as “desirable” among workers by almost 1,000 U.S. and Canadian employers were:

• Motivation,the inherent drive one has to work.
• Reliability,equated with doing one’s tasks consistently.
• Dependability,which differs from reliability as defined by employers to encompass consistent attendance and punctuality. It is being able to be counted on.