How organizations can help their workforce develop enduring human capabilities<\/p>\n
In recent years, psychological, educational, and economic research has focused heavily on better understanding how to effectively develop these skills in children through education for improved career and life outcomes.11<\/a>\u00a0Yet, the discussion may not be getting the right level of focus as the employability skills gap continues to grow when it comes to how these same concepts apply to adults despite the fact that there is a drought of workers with these capabilities that is contributing to the growing employability gap.12<\/a><\/p>\n Some educational and academic institutions have been researching this traditionally overlooked body of social and emotional capabilities for years. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an organization focused on advancing the development of academic, social, and emotional competence (led by a board of industry and academic organizations including Yale, NYU, University of Virginia, and the University of Chicago), has been working for two decades to make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education from preschool through high school. CASEL defines social and emotional learning as \u201cthe process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to understand and manage emotions, set and accomplish positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.\u201d13<\/a>\u00a0CASEL has developed a number of evidence-based programs based on decades of case studies that schools can tailor to meet their own community\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n Most organizations, however, lack a focused approach to helping their professionals develop social and emotional capabilities. One reason may be that these types of capabilities are commonly thought to be innate or locked in during childhood. But research suggests just the opposite. According to Harvard University\u2019s Center on the Developing Child, social-emotional, noncognitive capabilities are malleable into adulthood and can be developed with the right resources, environment, and incentives.14<\/a>\u00a0For instance, psychologist Angela Duckworth, known for her research on \u201cgrit\u201d (a combination of perseverance and passion15<\/a>), believes that this quality can be cultivated regardless of innate talent or intelligence. An MIT study recently tested this theory, and found that a 12-month workforce training program focused on improving\u00a0communication, problem-solving and decision-making, time and stress management, financial literacy, legal literacy and social entitlements, and execution excellence significantly impacted productivity.16<\/a>\u00a0The program delivered a 250 percent return on investment (ROI) within eight months of completion, with much of the gain being attributed to a jump in productivity.<\/p>\n Some market leaders are attempting to actively cultivate these human capabilities within their workforce. For example, Google conducted a research study on its most effective managers and produced a list of 10 key traits they all share.17<\/a>\u00a0Many of these traits align with CASEL\u2019s set of social and emotional capabilities, including communication, collaboration, and empathy. Google has also revisited its hiring strategy in recent years to screen for these same nontechnical capabilities, such as critical thinking, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Other companies also focus on cultivating human capabilities in their workforce. For example, Bank of America rolled out a national training program focused on building empathy to help employees better connect with and advise clients.18<\/a>\u00a0Walmart also leverages VR technology to train in-store employees in soft skills needed to better interact with customers.19<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How organizations can help their workforce develop enduring human capabilities In recent years, psychological, educational, and economic research…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[79,18,19,17,227],"class_list":{"0":"post-132817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-jobs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}