Hard Skills and Soft Skills: The Differences and Use Cases

Exactly what are hard and soft skills and what are the differences? Learning the difference between these two skill sets is the first step in identifying your own development areas or those of your staff. 

For online compliance training courses that take your professional development to the next level, Virtual College has you covered. 

Now, let’s broaden our understanding of hard and soft skills with this helpful guide to the meaning of both along with the key differences. 

What Are Hard and Soft Skills?

In the professional world, skills are often categorised into two main types: hard skills and soft skills. 

Once you grasp the difference between hard and soft skills you won’t just be able to improve your own skill set, you’ll also be able to identify soft and hard skills gaps in others - this could be crucial if your role involves team management. 

Let's gain a deeper understanding of what these skills entail and explore the soft skills vs hard skills debate.

Definition of Hard Skills

Hard skills are specific technical abilities that can be clearly defined and measured. 

You acquire these technical skills through education, mandatory training, certifications and on-the-job experience. Hard skills are usually baseline requirements for performing specific job functions. 

Hard skills are often the first things employers look for in a job candidate, as they demonstrate your ability to perform the technical aspects of a role. 

Some examples include:

Definition of Soft Skills

Soft skills are personal attributes and abilities that affect how you work and interact with others. 

These skills are often referred to as 'people skills' or 'interpersonal skills'. Unlike hard skills, soft skills are not tied to a specific job. These interpersonal skills tend to be transferable across a wide variety of roles and sectors.

Examples of soft skills include:

• Communication (both verbal and written)
• Adaptability and flexibility
• Conflict resolution in the workplace
• Problem-solving and critical thinking
• Time management and organisation
• Leadership and ability to effectively mentor
• Conflict resolution
• Active listening skills

Soft skills are increasingly valued by employers, as they contribute hugely to an individual's ability to work effectively within a team. 

While hard skills are a necessity for performing the core tasks your job role requires, soft skills are often what determine how well you fit in with and contribute to a workplace.

The Key Differences Between Hard and Soft Skills

To better understand the difference between hard and soft skills, let's look at this quick comparison:

As you can see there are some key differences between soft and hard skills that as soon as you know, become quite easy to identify. 

Hard Skills vs Soft Skills: Which Are More Important?

While there are some big differences between them, hard skills and soft skills are not mutually exclusive. Both are vital in order to perform well at any job.

Hard skills and soft skills actually complement each other. People will almost always need both the hard skills to perform the technical aspects of their role as well the soft skills which give them the ability to collaborate well with team members. 

If you think that soft skills are less important because they are less technical, think again. As one Deloitte Insights article reports, up to 92% of companies believe that soft skills are just as important or even more important than hard skills. 

That’s why the best employees work on honing both their technical abilities and soft skills to improve how easy they are to work with a team member.

How to Improve Your Soft and Hard Skills

Now that we’ve covered the answer to what are hard and soft skills quite comprehensively, let’s get into how you can improve your own, or your employees’. 

Developing Hard skills

• Courses in subjects where you can quickly develop your understanding online, such as business compliance understanding
• Degrees, diplomas and other qualifications - these can often be undertaken full or part-time, to work around your existing job schedule

Cultivating Soft Skills

• Enrolling on soft skills training courses
• Self-reflection, especially after training
• Consciously adjusting behaviour based on feedback, training and self-reflection 

Hear from a Business Development Leader

Here’s what Business Development Leader Mel Kilcoyne has to say about Virtual College’s business skills courses:

"We developed our business compliance courses because we recognised that success in today's workplace requires more than just technical abilities. It demands the ability to communicate effectively, adapt quickly, and work collaboratively.

Our aim is to equip professionals with this crucial combination of hard and soft skills through engaging online courses that deliver lasting impact".

Upskill with Engaging Online Training by Virtual College

Searching for more from your career? You’re right to care about both your hard and soft skills. Search our extensive collection of accredited business compliance training courses to pick from courses that cover both. That way you can patch any gaps in your knowledge or that of your staff with an easy-to-access online course. 

Find the perfect online course to sharpen your skills, today.