很多人并不覺得軟技能是個多么重要的東西。 數字學習平臺D2L是富達、埃森哲等跨國企業的培訓軟件提供商。談到軟技能的問題,該公司的聯合創始人、首席戰略師杰里米·奧格爾認為:“‘軟技能’這個詞聽來有些貶義,容易給人一種軟弱的感覺。我更喜歡稱其為‘持久技能’或‘人際技能’。” 軟技能的確是一種“持久”的技能。奧格爾指出,有研究表明,所謂的“硬技能”,特別是IT行業的硬技能,平均18個月左右就會過時。而團隊合作的能力、講故事的能力、理解客戶的能力等技能則永遠不會過時。不過你換了多少次工作,這些技能都會一直伴隨著你。至少到目前為止,人工智能在這些方面還沒有辦法取代你。 另外,幾乎任何地方都對這些“持久技能”和“人際技能”有巨大需求。比如職業網站領英(LinkedIn)最近對美國的4000多名經理人和高管進行了一項調查,結果發現,“軟”技能已經成了他們首要的培訓目標。從全美大學與雇主協會的調查報告中可以看出,最近幾年,就業市場上的高學分的理工科畢業生固然不少,但招聘經理們更想要的,卻是那些能解決問題、能和團隊成員和睦協作的人才。 去年5月,麥當勞對美國的6247名成年員工進行了一項調查,有88%的受訪者認為,培養人際技能是“重要”或“非常重要”的,特別是對剛入職場的年輕人。值得注意的是,在18歲至24歲受訪者中,有近一半人(46%)坦承,他們這個年齡群體(也就所謂“Z世代”或“95后”)普遍缺乏這些技能。麥當勞還調查了員工最終想在哪些領域發展自己的職業生涯。排在前五名的答案分別是:藝術與娛樂業、自主創業、醫療行業、食品服務業和科技行業。 根據調查結果,麥當勞制定了一項為期五年的大規模內訓計劃,以幫助麥當勞的85萬名美國員工培養團隊合作、客戶服務和所謂的“責任意識”能力(所謂責任意識,就是要教育員工為什么要做一個可靠的人,為什么要守時等等)。 這項內訓計劃的口號是“做你想做的”,將于12月正式在全美啟動。最吸引人的一點是,員工可以申請在最感興趣的領域跟隨一個知名人士學習。麥當勞將這些導師稱為“影響者”。比如在醫療保健領域,麥當勞聘請的“影響者”是畢業于哈佛醫學院的梅約醫學中心皮膚科名醫米娜·辛;創業領域的“影響者”則是對沖基金經理、風投家、知名主播、曾參與創辦20多家企業的詹姆斯·阿爾塔徹。 麥當勞美國人力資源總監梅麗莎·克爾西表示,麥當勞的目標是“向員工展示,在他們所選擇的領域,人們的日常生活是什么樣的,成功又是什么樣的。我們鼓勵‘影響者’談談他們是如何學到‘軟’技能的,又是怎樣將這些軟技能運用到他們的工作中的。” 此外,麥當勞還與一家名叫“成人與體驗式學習理事會”的非盈利機構合作開發了一套職業規劃指導工具,以手機APP的形式向所有員工免費提供,從而使員工能夠在時間允許的條件下,按照自己的學習進度完成各個訓練模塊。另外,麥當勞還推出了一項“機會之路”學費報銷項目,所有員工均可免費請專業顧問提供職業咨詢,幫助他們制定長期職業目標。目前已有近五分之一(17%)報名該項目的員工申請了職業咨詢服務,請專業顧問為他們規劃職業發展。 麥當勞并未透露該公司在“做你想做的”項目上的花費。不過該公司曾公開表示,僅學費報銷一項的支出就已增長了近三倍,達到1.5億美元左右。目前已有3.3萬余名員工參與該項目。克爾西表示,她希望接下來的培訓能吸引更多員工報名參加。克爾西大方地承認,對于麥當勞的大多數員工來說,麥當勞只是他們職業生涯的一個中轉站,而并非終點——畢竟很多麥當勞的員工只有十幾歲,或者還是在校大學生。 克爾西表示:“當然,如果員工們大學畢業之后,想回到麥當勞做營銷、分析或者管理工作,我們也是很高興的。但不管怎樣,讓員工接受更多培訓,特別是軟技能方面的培訓,也能在短期內為我們培養一批更好的員工。” 話雖這樣說,但很多員工大學畢業后,或許真的會回到麥當勞長期發展。在領英公司的一項調查中,有高達94%的受訪者表示,他們更傾向于選擇愿意為他們提供職業發展的雇主。要知道,麥當勞在北美的各個國家都有近50萬名員工,你們公司的下一個優秀的人才,可能就是它培養出來的。 不用謝。(財富中文網) 本文作者安妮·費希爾是一名職業專家,也是《財富》雜志關于21世紀工作和生活方式的專欄“Work It Out”的專欄作家。 譯者:樸成奎 |
No question about it, “soft skills” have a PR problem. “Calling them ‘soft’ sounds derogatory. It sounds weak,” observes Jeremy Auger, co-founder and strategy chief at digital-learning powerhouse D2L, purveyor of training software to Fidelity, Accenture, and many others. “I prefer to call them durable skills. Or human skills.” “Durable” indeed. Auger points to research showing that hard skills, particularly in IT, now become obsolete after an average of just 18 months. A knack for teamwork, or storytelling, or empathy with customers, by contrast, never wears out. You can take it with you no matter how many times you change jobs and, so far at least, artificial intelligence can’t one-up you. Moreover, durable-slash-human skills are in huge demand just about everywhere. Consider: LinkedIn recently surveyed 4,000 U.S. managers and executives and found “soft” skills are now their No. 1 training priority. Reports from the National Association of Colleges and Employers have been advising new grads for the past few years that, while STEM majors and high GPAs are swell, what hiring managers really want is more candidates who can solve problems and work well with teammates. So it comes as no big surprise that, when McDonald’s commissioned a nationwide poll last May of 6,247 adults, 88% said the chance to cultivate human skills is “important” or “very important,” especially for young people who are new to the workforce. Notably, nearly half (46%) of the 18- to 24-year-olds said that these skills are lacking among their own Gen Z age group. The same survey also asked McDonald’s workers to name the fields where they eventually hope to build their careers. The top five answers: arts and entertainment, entrepreneurship, health care, food service, and technology. The research capped off five years of effort to design a massive internal training effort, aimed in large part at helping McDonalds’ 850,000 U.S. employees to up their game in areas like teamwork, customer service, and what the company calls “responsibility” (meaning, for instance, why it’s important to be dependable and show up on time). Dubbed “Where You Want to Be,” the new training campaign kicks off in December. One intriguing feature: Any employee can apply for the chance to spend time shadowing a prominent person, or what McDonald’s calls an “influencer,” in the field that interests them most. One of these, in health care, is Meena Singh, M.D., a dermatologist trained at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic. Another, in entrepreneurship, is James Altucher, a hedge fund manager, venture capitalist, and podcaster, who has founded or co-founded 20 startups. The goal, says McDonald’s U.S. chief people officer Melissa Kersey, is to “show employees what day-to-day life is like, and what success looks like, in their chosen field. We’ve encouraged the influencers to talk about how they’ve learned their ‘soft’ skills, and how they apply them in their work.” At the same time, a new set of career-planning and mentoring tools—designed in partnership with the nonprofit Council for Adult & Experiential Learning—will be available for free to all employees, in mobile-app form so that people can work on the training modules at their own pace, when their schedules allow. Partly because almost one in five (17%) employees enrolled in McDonalds’ “Archway to Opportunity” tuition-reimbursement program has asked for counseling to help them decide on a career path, everyone will also be able to consult professional advisers, again at no charge, who can lend a hand with long-term goals. McDonald’s won’t say what it’s spending on the “Where You Want to Be” campaign, although it has reported publicly that tuition reimbursement has nearly tripled recently to about $150 million. Some 33,000 of the company’s workers have already participated in that, and Kersey says she hopes the new training will encourage more to sign up. She’s enough of a realist to concede that McDonald’s is a way station on the road to some other career for most of its workers—many of whom are, after all, still in their teens or in college. “We’d love it, of course, if people come back after they finish school and do marketing, or analytics, or management for us,” Kersey says. “But either way, more training, especially in soft skills, makes them better employees for us in the short term.” Noted, but even so, Kersey may get her wish. An overwhelming 94% of employees in the LinkedIn study said they’d be inclined to stick with an employer who helped them develop their careers. In the meantime, considering that McDonald’s has nearly a million employees in every part of North America, the company might just be training your next great hire. You’re welcome. Anne Fisher is a career expert and advice columnist who writes “Work It Out,” Fortune’s guide to working and living in the 21st century. |