Soft Skills Upskilling Planning Guide

Thomas Stone - Senior Research Analyst, i4cp

October 24, 2018

Much attention continues to be paid to the need to increase skills in the labor force in the STEM area (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and while such skills are crucial to the growth and sustainability of many organizations, so too are so-called soft skills, such as teamwork, communication, problem solving, and so on.

Upskill America and i4cp developed a new tool to help employers create training programs for soft skills. Click on the images to zoom in, or download them both in PDF format.

The Soft Skills tool is the fourth in a series of infographics, thanks to a grant from Walmart to support UpSkill America’s work to equip businesses with tools to educate, train, and support frontline workers’ development to advance their careers. The other three:

Thomas Stone, Senior Research Analyst

Tom Stone is a Senior Research Analyst at the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). He has led major research studies on workforce readiness, hybrid and remote work, HR technology, leadership behaviors, succession management, automation and AI, and other topics. Tom is the regular co-host of i4cp's Next Practices Weekly event series, leads i4cp's HR benchmarking efforts, and is heavily involved with i4cp’s Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board and i4cp’s Workforce Planning Exchange. Tom has 25+ years of experience in the Learning and Development and broader Human Capital industry. Prior to joining i4cp, Tom was Director, Technology Based Learning at Dale Carnegie Training, where he led the product development for their live online and other digital offerings. Earlier in his career Tom also served as a Senior Research Analyst at Taleo and held various positions, including Product Design Architect and Content Development Manager at Element K. Tom is a popular speaker and has spoken at over 150 regional, national, and international conferences on a wide range of topics. He is also co-author of the book "Interact and Engage! 75+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars" (ATD Press, Second Edition, 2022). In addition to his research and writing in the Human Capital industry, Tom is also an avid baseball fan and wrote the book "Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises" (ACTA Sports, 2019).