Finding a Balance: Technical Skills vs Soft Skills in the Workplace

Embracing a focus on skills can enhance your company’s adaptability to market changes and innovation. Yet, many employers struggle to balance technical skills vs. soft skills as they develop their teams and recruit new hires. 

“Some companies are already prioritizing soft skills, while others have been so historically focused on hard skills that developing human skills may not have even been on their radar,” says Rebecca Taylor, CCO and Co-founder of SkillCycle.

A strategic approach to evaluating skills in your employees and across your organization is vital to recognizing, developing, and investing in both types of skills.

Nearly 90% of executives say skills are becoming important for how organizations define work, deploy talent, manage careers, and value their employees, according to Deloitte.

In this article on technical skills vs. soft skills at work, we’ll explore:

• Navigating the shift to a skills-based organization 
• Balancing technical skills vs. soft skills at work
• How to evaluate and hire for soft skills
• Developing soft skills for leaders and teams

What Are Technical and Soft Skills?

Technical skills – definition and examples

Technical skills (sometimes called hard skills or professional skills) are teachable abilities tied to specific tools, tasks, or frameworks:

• Programming languages (Python, JavaScript)
• Financial modelling in Excel or Power BI
• CAD design or 3-D printing
• Network security and cloud architecture
• Regulatory knowledge, e.g., IFRS or HIPAA

They’re typically assessed via exams, certifications, code reviews, or portfolio proofs.

Soft Skills – Definition and Examples

Soft skills—also known as human or durable skills—are behavioural traits that drive how work gets done:

• Clear communication and active listening
• Adaptability and problem-solving
• Emotional intelligence and empathy
• Collaboration and conflict resolution
• Leadership and influence

Unlike software versions, these abilities don’t expire every two years—and they travel easily across industries. That’s why the importance of soft skills keeps climbing as automation tackles more technical tasks.

Navigating the shift to a skills-based organization

A skills-based approach involves shifting from a focus on job titles and roles to evaluating what skills are needed to meet company objectives. 

Through this lens, companies can begin to understand that the value they are building in the organization comes from adding and developing skills in their people. Looking at the skills economy and their own skills inventory helps leaders begin to view employees as the owners of skills that are valuable to the company.

“This language can bridge the gap between operations and HR. Then, they can communicate the value of employees, assess investment into these skills, and how these investments relate to the company’s ability to hit targets,” says Taylor.

A focus on skills can also help support productive conversations about evaluating employees and performance. If someone isn’t thriving in a role, it’s easier to address gaps quickly to ensure the company has the right skills in the right spots.

Why Both Skill Types Matter in the Workplace

1. Innovation demands cross-pollination
   Engineers need storytellers to pitch prototypes; marketers need data scientists to validate campaigns. Mixing technical skills and soft skills accelerates idea-to-market speed.
2. Customers buy experiences, not specs
   Your product may be bullet-proof code, but poor service or clunky onboarding will sink NPS. Soft skills keep technical brilliance usable.
3. Automation amplifies people problems
   As chatbots handle FAQs, employees tackle nuanced issues requiring empathy and negotiation. WEF notes that leadership and social influence now outpace SQL in growth rate. 
4. Resilience comes from balanced teams
   Organizations that cultivate both skill sets bounce back 1.8× faster from disruption, says Deloitte’s 2024 Human Capital Trends.

(Want more on why nurturing durable skills matters for long-term agility?)

Balancing Technical Skills vs. Soft Skills at Work

Hard skills are quantifiable and specific to job roles, while soft skills include human skills like teamwork, communication, and conflict resolution. Blending both skill sets is increasingly important as companies work to strengthen their adaptability.

The top three of 20 core skills predicted to matter most by 2030 are technological skills, social and emotional skills, and higher-level cognitive skills, according to McKinsey. Social and emotional skills are especially important because machines cannot easily replicate them. 

“AI has accelerated some companies’ evaluation of hard vs. soft skills,” says Taylor. “As companies embrace automation in some areas, they realize they can redirect human talent to more worthwhile efforts.”

Progress on this front varies widely, depending on industry and type of organization. Some companies are already working to balance these two types of skills, while others must begin to craft the strategies they’ll need in the future. 

For example, companies in STEM may have prioritized technical expertise over human skills for years due to the technical nature of the work. Yet, even in these industries, soft skills matter. 

How to Assess Technical vs Soft Skills in Your Workforce

Performance Reviews and Skill Mapping

Annual or twice-yearly ratings alone just don’t cut it anymore: 95 % of managers say their current review system falls short, and almost half of companies still cling to that once-a-year ritual — leaving skill blind spots unaddressed and disengagement on the table.​

Here’s how to make reviews a real skills GPS—without drowning people in paperwork:

• Triangulate evidence, don’t rely on one manager’s memory. Layer 360° feedback, customer-satisfaction scores and peer recognition onto the manager’s assessment. Employees who receive meaningful feedback every week are 80 % more likely to be fully engaged, a lift that translates into 30 % higher revenue growth for feedback-savvy firms.
• Map soft-skill influence next to hard-skill badges. Certification grids show who’s Azure-certified or Six Sigma-green, but they rarely capture empathy or storytelling chops. Use organizational-network analysis (ONA) or social-learning data to reveal hidden influencers—the colleague everyone calls when a project’s on fire.
• Translate insights into visual heat maps. A spider chart that shows “Presentation” at 9/10 and “SQL” at 4/10 makes priorities pop. In LinkedIn’s 2024 Workplace Learning Report, 91 % of L&D leaders said human (or “power”) skills are gaining importance, and 54 % have boosted their own data-analysis skills to track them.​LinkedIn Learning
• Close the loop with bite-size nudges. After reviews, auto-suggest one micro-course or a peer-shadowing session. Companies that track “closing workforce skill gaps” as a metric (30 % do so today) see faster performance pay-offs than those counting course completions alone.​

Training-Need Assessments

A formal needs analysis sounds bureaucratic, yet 60 % of firms now run one before green-lighting training spend — and for good reason.​

Here’s how to turn that exercise into a revenue-saving radar:

• Blend quantitative dashboards with qualitative debriefs. Pull LMS completion rates, project delay reports and customer-ticket tags, then follow up with retro interviews. If a sprint slipped because user stories were fuzzy, the data will point to “communication,” not “JavaScript,” as the urgent gap.
• Tie assessments to ROI from day one. The ROI Institute found that programmes planned with impact metrics up front avoid costly retro-fits and make evaluation easier—even when a full ROI study isn’t pursued.​
• Prioritise gaps with a business-value lens. Training Magazine’s 2024 Industry Report shows that 46 % of companies increased their learning budgets last year, but resources are still finite. Rank gaps by risk and opportunity: a two-hour conflict-resolution workshop for cross-functional leads may save three stalled product launches.​
• Pulse-check progress every quarter. Workers actually prefer quarterly refreshers (33 % choose that cadence) over the monthly drip most companies offer. Aligning frequency with learner preference boosts completion and skill retention.​
• Spot emerging needs early with performance telemetry. Because AI is reshaping roles fast, skills-mix data should feed into workforce planning dashboards in real time. According to LinkedIn, learning teams that can prove they help employees pivot into new internal roles deliver 87 % more business value—and they can only do that if needs-analysis data flows continuously, not annually.​

How to Evaluate and Hire for Soft Skills

Prioritizing soft skills prepares organizations for the future of work and can give them a competitive advantage. Yet leaders aren’t always well equipped to recognize soft skills in their existing employees. 

“Often, an employee’s soft skills are assessed by feedback from peers because soft skills are about how they do the job, not the results of the job itself,” says Taylor.

This gap in evaluating soft skills can also create less effective interview processes because leaders must try to evaluate something they can’t hear, see, or touch. It’s essential to develop clear ways to determine and measure how they show up through soft skill interview questions and careful listening.

Companies that are getting better at assessing soft skills are starting to define how these skills show up to more easily evaluate them in new hires. 

“There’s a huge opportunity to be more intentional about how people prioritize soft skills and to create a core understanding of how these skills show up,” says Taylor.

These companies also build out soft skill interview questions that will determine whether or not certain skills are evident. How? By asking about experiences in ways that draw information about situations, tasks, actions, and results rather than just milestones. 

For example, if someone is assessing an applicant’s communication skills, they may ask these types of questions while also evaluating the applicant’s behavior that demonstrates these skills as well. For instance, they might evaluate how the applicant has communicated with hiring managers during the interview. 

“Companies that do this well are breaking down the definitions into behaviors to better understand them as competencies,” says Taylor.

People may have a degree of a particular soft skill but not a well-rounded competency relevant to your organization. It’s critical for companies to develop their ability to understand what skills they need first, then begin to identify these skills within their teams or in applicants.

How to Develop Soft Skills for Leaders and Teams

To develop their own soft skills effectively, leaders must first acknowledge their areas of development. They should foster a mindset of receptiveness to feedback on their soft skills, both strengths and areas needing improvement. 

Additionally, leaders should be willing to step outside their comfort zones to practice behaviors that will enhance their soft skills to allow those skills to thrive. This can require vulnerability but encourages others to do the same.

“It’s important to be open to feedback and recognize that for everyone on the team, soft skill feedback can feel more personal than hard skill feedback,” says Taylor.

To develop and foster soft skills in their teams, leaders should provide ample opportunities for practical learning rather than just learning from theory or textbooks. Creating environments where team members can practice new skills, even if uncomfortable, is also crucial. 

Leaders must allow space for practice sessions to prepare team members for real situations. They can apply the skills they have rehearsed and be confident that they have the necessary training and will resolve the situation. 

Navigating a skills-based economy and balancing different skill sets in your organization is imperative to future success. Schedule a demo to learn more. 

FAQs

Q1. What’s the difference between hard skills and technical skills?

Hard skills are any teachable, measurable abilities. Technical skills are a subset of hard skills that focus on specific tools, platforms, or processes such as Kubernetes administration or IFRS accounting. In short, every technical skill is a hard skill, but not vice versa.

Q2. Are professional skills different from technical skills?

Professional skills are distinct from technical skills because they cover workplace behaviors—ethics, client communication, time management—that translate technical know-how into business impact. Technical skills explain how to perform a task; professional skills explain how to perform it effectively with stakeholders.

Q3. Can soft skills be measured during hiring?

Soft skills can indeed be measured in hiring by converting them into observable behaviors. Behavioral interviews, realistic role-play scenarios, and validated psychometric assessments assign numeric scores to traits such as adaptability, teamwork, and problem-solving, giving recruiters objective data.

Q4. What are the top seven soft skills employers look for?

The seven soft skills most employers cite are communication, problem-solving, adaptability, teamwork, emotional intelligence, leadership, and creativity. Together these abilities help employees navigate change, collaborate effectively, and spark innovation.

Q5. Can you list five examples of both hard and soft skills?

Five hard-skill examples are Python scripting, SEO optimization, financial forecasting, AutoCAD design, and Salesforce administration. Five soft-skill examples are negotiation, active listening, conflict resolution, critical thinking, and resilience.