Technology will only make soft skills more important

At the recent Smart Nation Summit, Mr S Iswaran, Minister for Communications and Information, highlighted the need for businesses to harness the digital age. It is part of an ongoing national effort to raise productivity levels against a backdrop of slowing economic growth, and continuous geopolitical uncertainty.

However, the increasing push to use technology to undertake or automate complex tasks have raised concerns as to what jobs remain for us – human.

The answer is simple. They are jobs that focus on soft skills.

Soft skills are needed to make a difference
Soft skills – personal attributes that enable individuals to interact effectively and harmoniously with others – have moved from being “optional” to “crucial”. According to LinkedIn’s latest Workplace Learning Report, 57% of senior leaders today say soft skills are more important than technical skills.

One industry that values soft skills is hospitality.

Technology trends have continued to shape the hospitality industry in recent years. Smart keys, robot concierges, and radio frequency identifications (RFID) tagging of towels for easy tracking, are examples of innovations adopted to streamline operations. Employees undergo training to be equipped with the technical skill sets to manage these tools.

On the other hand, the hospitality industry is at its core driven by service excellence and personalisation.

Soft skills, specifically observation, attentiveness, and responsiveness, are necessary for hoteliers to make guests feel at home. One example was when a couple from Guam was staying at the Quincy Hotel for holiday. The husband was then called away for a business trip unexpectedly, leaving the wife alone in Singapore for a day as she could not get a flight out on the same day. One of our guest services colleagues took the initiative to offer to accompany the wife to tour Singapore even if it meant spending part of her personal time off. They got along well and became friends, and to date, they are still in contact.

This case of proactiveness cannot be replicated with technology.

Only individuals with soft skills can and employers play a critical role in honing these skill sets.

Reviewing internal practices
This can be done by offering opportunities for practice, for reflection, and refinement.

At our company, we regularly evaluate internal practices and look for ways to refine processes. For instance, at our Village Hotel Changi, we recently assessed the operations team’s workflow. We learnt that the Admin Executives often play the middlemen role, coordinating between the Front Office, Housekeeping, and Engineering functions. We established that technology can help streamline this process. Hence, we integrated an e-housekeeping system to automate the manual functions in this process. Since then, there was a 90% decrease in time spent for coordination by Admin Executives. Team members also shared that this refinement gave them more opportunities to build their communications, decision-making, and critical thinking skills.

Hospitality is a business of happiness
Technology has undeniably enhanced business productivity and efficiency.

For the travel industry, trains, planes, and ships will still exist except, they travel faster and further. Immigration queues at airports will remain, except they are not checking for liquids, but scanning data to analyse travellers’ intentions and probable behaviour during their visit.

However, the fundamental of the hospitality industry – the human touch – will remain irreplaceable.

As human beings, we will still appreciate being recognised by name, being treated with kindness, and compassion by another human being. A front desk personnel calming a crying child with a sweet, a hotel manager sending flowers for a wedding anniversary. These little acts of initiative cannot be replaced with technology, and will become increasingly valued.