Hard skills represent the technical expertise required to accomplish day-to-day tasks. Workers acquire these skills through training and on the job experiences. These skills improve over time, as workers improve and grow accustomed to the processes and procedures of the job. Hard skills are easily measurable. The behavioral era of the 1930 marked the recognition of the people side of organizational behavior. The ideas and theories established during this period led to the creation of interpersonal skills. Psychology plays an important role in understanding how employees react to management decisions. Industrial Psychology plays a huge role in improving the process of pairing the right individual skills and abilities with job requirements. Contributors such as Abraham Maslow covered human relations issues such as motivation. Other behavioral theorist sought answers to the question: What do workers want? Soft skills work to improve productivity by creating environments where workers have responsibility, opportunity for growth, and recognition of their achievements. .
Hard skills pertained to the detailed knowledge required to achieve specific tasks. Mastering these gives the manager the advantage of knowing what individual tasks are necessary to increase productivity. Interpersonal skills give the manager the ability to decide which worker is more effective for the individual task. Soft skills give the managers the necessary tools to motivate and instill a sense of ownership, empowerment, and achievement to workers. Hard skills are more tangible and measurable and lend themselves to analysis using scientific management methods. Soft skills are less tangible and are affected by numerous outside influences. The unpredictable nature of individuals make applying these skills difficult and the time it takes to master them longer. Hard skills seem to require more detailed and more frequent training then soft skills.