Soft skills explained for MEB members

Thursday 28 November, the MEB invited members to a talk entitled “Soft skills at the heart of business success”, jointly organised by Monaco Chamber of Commerce and Monaco Digital’s Campus. Stefan Bruno, Director of Human Resources and Public Service Training shared his invaluable experience gained in the administration.

For the 50-plus managers present, the Monaco Digital Campus team outlined the development of soft skills – in other words behavioural skills - very much in vogue in human resources departments, and described them succinctly and clearly.

Until recently, business and technical skill-sets took precedence, but in a rapidly changing world of work other skills have emerged such as the ability to solve problems, communicate effectively, use initiative, manage time and stress, emotional intelligence, empathy, creativity and teamwork.

These are all concepts that have proved vital for the Administration as Monaco undergoes a digital transition, as Stefan Bruno explained: “With Frédéric Genta, Country Chief Digital Officer in charge of the digital transition, we quickly realised that it is more of a human and cultural challenge than technical. We decided to enhance the status of employees so they effectively become agents of change. We are working every day to create the right conditions for developing soft skills, especially with managers who are the main drivers of change. We believe it’s essential to stimulate people’s creativity and curiosity, and develop a collaborative approach to build an Administration that is more agile, transversal and capable of meeting challenges posed by the emergence of new professions.”

To conclude, an interactive session involving participants via their smartphones highlighted “communications” as a skill to be developed as a priority in any company. A skill delegates had plenty of time to practice at the end of the talk in the convivial setting of the Campus!