How to nurture soft skills in hybrid work?

Authors: Heidi Myyryläinen & Maiju Vanonen

Soft skills – are they more essential than before?

Soft skills aren’t a new discovery. Expressing oneself and engaging with others lies at the heart of humanity. Soft skills are seen as something that can be recognised, developed, and strengthened (Cimatti 2016). Soft skills can be seen as soft skills as intra-personal, individual-level competences that focus on self-regulation, reflection, and personal effectiveness. They are about an individual’s capacity to understand themselves, manage emotions, think critically, relate to others and adapt. In this frame, soft skills are seen as foundational for personal growth, learning agility, and the effective application of hard skills in professional and social contexts. (Cimatti 2016)

The topic has attracted interest as people work at multiple sites and in digitalized environment. There is a need to understand the psychosocial characteristics of what we create and how we work and interact. Machines can analyse data faster than people can, but they cannot replace the humans, interpret complex contexts or make decisions about moral dilemmas. There are more calls to understand the human side particularly in the highly digitalized environments. What is the role of emotional intelligence, values and meanings in these? (Cardon 2024)

Soft skills as group process competencies

While soft skills can be seen as individual competences, they are also social. They emerge in interactions and roles. Forsell et al. (2020) frames soft skills as skills that manifest through interactions and group participation. While individuals contribute, their social and collaborative abilities are inseparable from the group context. For example, when a group values a particular trait, it leaves its mark, and when the groups we belong to see us in certain ways, that matters too. The support, recognition, roles, and behavior of others all help shape how we understand ourselves, how we relate to others.

Even in hybrid work, interactions shape how we use soft skills. People can listen attentively, express themselves, and connect with one another. Skills include setting boundaries and the ability to focus. At their best, groups enable each member’s unique strengths to emerge, and soft skills such as communication, adaptability, and collaboration flourish through the ways people interact. Of course, notions of skilled interaction vary between different professional contexts. Communication is shaped by multiple perspectives, diverse intentions, and the social and organizational contexts in which people participate. Support, recognition, assigned roles, and the behaviors of others all influence how we see ourselves, how we relate to each other, and how our skills develop. In this light, soft skills are not only individual capacities but also relational and group level abilities, emerging through the dynamics of the groups and environments we are part of.

How to develop soft skills in hybrid work?

According to the World Economic Forum (2025), by 2030, around 40% of workers’ skills will need updating, with analytical thinking, creativity, adaptability, and digital skills gaining importance. The trend in work is more automation and distributed collaboration, so meaning making, critical thinking and deeper understanding is even more needed than before. (World Economic Forum 2025) Considering this, developing soft skills intentionally benefits the individual, group and the organization alike.

According to a report by World Economic Forum (2025) companies are increasing reskilling and upskilling efforts to keep pace with changing skill demands. Although the need for and access to training vary across industries and regions, interpersonal skills, problem-solving and cognitive skills remain a common priority. These skills are invested in as they are seen as ways to support productivity and competitiveness. Upskilling initiatives are also central to nurturing and keeping the talent. (World Economic Forum 2025)

Most studies on soft skills focus on educational contexts. Yet, soft skills are dynamic infrastructure in any organization, with critical importance. When people work apart, soft skills grow in importance, there are fears that distance can also create confusion and misalignment. Conversely, however digital and distributed contexts can also create new opportunities for learning, reflection, and intentional skill development. Either way, it needs attention at the organizational level too. People have an inner need for sense of social presence and when they perceive to be part of a social environment, they for example share more information (Hertel et al. 2017).

Equally, learnings from Distance LAB project underline that remote knowledge workers value the small moments in everyday interactions: when a collaborator says something meaningful, surprises them, shares insight from afar, discovers common ground, or teaches them something new. The purposefully organized and skilled remote interaction can be as or more effective than in-person collaboration, with many respondents reporting that it does not diminish their collaboration within own team nor networking with new people. At best remote collaboration can be easy, clear, structured, and participatory. Building relationships and small habits of collaboration matter. In interactions, what matters is the appropriateness and attentiveness to the situation but also authenticity. Good communication, many participants noted, succeeds across different kinds of people when it is grounded in listening and authenticity.

This brings us back to the point that soft skills are personal, but they are also social and can also be deliberately nurtured in hybrid work. It’s worth reflecting on own skills and asking others for feedback (Cimatti 2016). This can happen while doing work tasks, thinking carefully, explaining their decisions clearly, and by getting quick feedback to see what went well and what needs improvement (Song et al. 2024). Learning these skills at work often takes place through routine teamwork and shared problem-solving, rather than formal training (Chatzipanagiotou et al. 2025). Hands-on, collaborative, and feedback-driven experiences develop soft skills effectively in the workplace (Llamas et al. 2019). Observing interactions may be simpler in a remote setting.

Learning can also be fostered through intentional, structured events, trainings or projects, also online. Interaction situations can also be simulated and reflected upon (Niemi et al. 2020). Song et al. (2024) also recommend using adaptable learning tools that can be tailored to reflect the specific context and demands of different workplace roles. The design of digital environments could also support the use of soft skills. Digital environments can foster interactions and self-regulated learning opportunities (Hertel et al. 2017).

Knowledge, experience, and skill development are important, but at the end of the day even small gestures and carefully chosen words can have a profound impact. Soft skills are deeply connected to outcomes that truly matter. It starts with believing that what you stand for makes a difference.

References

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Song, Y., Roohr, K. C., & Kirova, D. 2024. Exploring approaches for developing and evaluating workplace critical thinking skills. Thinking Skills and Creativity. 51, Article 101460. Cited 20 Nov 2025. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2023.101460

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Authors

Heidi Myyryläinen works as a project manager in Distance LAB project. She works as an RDI expert at LAB University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Business and Hospitality.

Maiju Vanonen works as a trainee in Distance LAB project. She studies her bachelor’s degree in international business at LAB University of Applied Sciences.

Illustration: https://pxhere.com/fi/photo/1432441 (CC0)

Reference to this article

Myyryläinen, H. & Vanonen, M. 2025. How to nurture soft skills in hybrid work? LAB Pro. Cited and date of citation. Available at https://www.labopen.fi/lab-pro/how-to-nurture-soft-skills-in-hybrid-work/