Wanted: Employees Who Can Shake Hands, Make Small Talk

This is a good article in the wall street Journal

Wanted: Employees Who Can Shake Hands, Make Small Talk

By


Kate King

Dec. 9, 2018 8:00 a.m. ET

Scott Johnson, president of Certified Retail Solutions, doesn’t
mind teaching his workers on the job. These days, to his dismay, that
includes showing them how to shake hands.

“You have to teach them how to look you in the eye when they do it,” Mr. Johnson said.

When Kyle Wheat started as an apprentice
at Mr. Johnson’s New Hampshire technology company, which sells and
maintains hardware to retailers, he was “terrified of all interactions.”
He once spent an entire day trying to figure out how to take apart a
printer because he was too scared to ask his manager for help.

“I didn’t really know how to talk to people in a professional
manner,” said Mr. Wheat, who started there at 17. “It’s not something
they really teach you in high school.” Mr. Wheat now shakes hands with
confidence, Mr. Johnson said.

New jobs, meaning those not killed off by automation, require
substantially more social skills than the manufacturing and factory jobs
that once powered the economy. Robots still can’t be friendly, make
small talk and calm disgruntled customers, which offers opportunity for
people. Turns out a lot of them aren’t very good at it, either.

Bank of America

has developed a national training program to help its employees show empathy.

Tellers don’t deposit paychecks or handle withdrawal slips
anymore, given the dominance of online banking. Workers are now expected
to offer a broader range of services to clients, said John Jordan, who
heads training and development for the bank’s consumer division.

“We’re trying to help people in the moments that matter in
their lives,” Mr. Jordan said. The bank’s “life stages” program shows
workers what it is like to be a parent, carer or retiree. About 17,800
workers have enrolled.

Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, Va., uses online courses, job
coaching and video-recorded simulation labs to help employees develop
skills, such as the best way to approach difficult conversations with
patients, said Executive Vice President Jeanne Armentrout.

“All of us text more, all of us use cellphones more, less live
conversations,” she said. “So we’re not as practiced at verbal
communication and even writing skills.”

Lisha Osborne, a nursing unit director at Carilion, said
advances in technology has made the need for soft skills such as
patience and communication even more pronounced.

“When I first started out as a nurse, people didn’t ask a lot
of questions. They just took what the doctor said and accepted it,” said
Ms. Osborne, who has been a nurse for 18 years. “Now, our ability to
help families and patients understand what’s going on is probably one of
the biggest things that we do.”

Jobs requiring high levels of social interaction grew by nearly
12 percentage points as a share of the U.S. labor force between 1980
and 2012, according to a study published last year by David Deming,
professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. Less-social, math-intensive
jobs fell by 3.3 percentage points over the same period.

“Work, broadly speaking, has shifted toward an emphasis on
things that we can’t do with technology,” he said. “There’s no way to
program a robot to figure out when a customer has had a bad day.”

Companies are responding by investing more in training, which
is also a way to retain workers in today’s tight labor market, said New
York Fed President John Williams in an interview late last month.

“Employers are having to become much more creative and much more proactive,” Mr. Williams said.

‘There’s no way to program a robot to figure out when a customer has had a bad day’

College graduates aren’t proficient at critical thinking,
communication and professionalism, according to 2017 surveys conducted
by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

“Education, perhaps, hasn’t kept up with the demand in the
economy for these skills,” said Gerald Chertavian, founder and chief
executive at the national nonprofit workforce-development organization
Year Up. “You can teach someone how to fix a computer or test a software
product, but bringing those professional skills to the corporate world
is absolutely critical.”

Subaru of America, Inc., which opened a new U.S. headquarters
in Camden, N.J., earlier this year, has invested more than $1 million in
local workforce-development programs since 2016, according to a
spokeswoman.

One of those programs, Respond Inc., has incorporated into its
curriculum topics like showing up on time and wearing appropriate
attire, said board member Ron O’Neal.

Freddie Alford, 42 years old, landed an internship at

Subaru

after taking automotive training at Respond. The company then
hired him for a full-time warehouse job, and in March gave him a plaque
commemorating his one-year work anniversary.

“I just needed that little kick in the butt, I guess,” he said.

Write to Kate King at Kate.King@wsj.com

Appeared in the December 10, 2018, print edition as 'Workplace Training Adds Handshakes, Eye Contact