For many organizations, their workgroups and committees consist of technically trained subject-matter experts/volunteers. These individuals offer a wealth of knowledge and can help support an organization's mission and goals. Within these committees and workgroups, you’ll find a range of personalities that all need to come together to communicate, collaborate, and lead harmoniously. 

Soft skills cover a range of personal attributes like teamwork, time management, leadership, communication, problem-solving, etc. This is why soft skills are not only necessary when employers are hiring a new employee, but it is just as important when recruiting for volunteers and developing workgroups. While many volunteers possess the technical know-how (hard skills), volunteers’ soft skills can determine how well they work with others and if they have a positive outlook towards the work they are doing. Tracking the soft skills of your volunteers could lead to substantial changes in the output of your committees by ensuring that each group will all have not only the hard skills to get the work done, but also the soft skills to be productive.

Similar to hard skills, committees need to have a diversity of soft skills. Before you decide where to place your volunteers, determine the soft skill sets needed for your workgroups and committees. If specific skills are required to perform a job, the roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined in your volunteer applications. When you’re ready to start recruiting for opportunities, think about how the soft skills of the individual volunteer lines up with the rest of the committee or workgroup. After the committee has wrapped up it’s term, evaluate individual performance to gather information including soft skill data.

While it’s essential to focus on your subject-matter experts/volunteer’s education, work experience, or training, it is equally important to ask the right questions of your volunteers and make sure that they are equipped with the soft skills needed to work in a collaborative environment. After all, building excellent teams is not about having the most qualified person with years of work experience or training; it’s about diverse teams that offer unique skills that ultimately create synergies among your volunteer groups.

Here are four soft skills your volunteers (and employees) should have no matter what industry you’re in:

• Teamwork and Communcation

  • Teamwork and communication may be a weak point at times for some organizations, according to a Gallup State of the American Workplace Report. The report found that employees “believe that their organization’s project performance would improve if their teams worked more collaboratively.” This is why creating teams with strong communicators are essential.

• Interpersonal Skills

  • Someone with interpersonal skills is willing to help a colleague or offer a hand with projects. Another aspect of interpersonal skills is taking responsibility for one's actions, such as acknowledging that a mistake was made rather than pointing fingers.

• Leadership

  • It’s essential to identify a person in your workgroup who possesses some level of leadership experience and the ability to lead a team. The ideal person should motivate and encourage others, help solve problems, and lead the team to succeed. A leader should also be someone who can accept responsibility and receive and give constructive criticism.

• Work Ethic

  • Having an excellent work ethic is a soft skill that all organizations are looking for when developing a workgroup. Team members that value the work they do and hold themselves to high standard care deeply about the work they are doing and strive to do their best.