Visme vs Articulate 360: Your Detailed Comparison Guide for 2025
When it comes to designing training programs for employees, it's easy for training managers to focus solely on technical skills.
But here’s the kicker. Soft skill training for employees is just as important as technical skills.
According to research conducted by Harvard University, Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center, 85% of job success comes from having well‐developed soft and people skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).
In one MIT Sloan study, soft skills training trials conducted over a controlled 12-month period in five different factories resulted in a 250% ROI after just eight months.
Pretty impressive results, right? Neglecting soft skills can create a significant gap in proficiency and productivity. In fact, soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork and leadership are essential for building a strong and effective team dynamic.
So how do you develop an effective soft skill training program in your company? In this guide, we’re going to explain everything you need to know about soft skill training and how you can create a training program to implement it.
Soft skill training is an organized educational program that aims to improve and build a variety of interpersonal abilities that are valuable for both personal and professional purposes.
It typically involves coaching, online courses, or workshops that help employees work together more efficiently, resolve issues, communicate properly and become more productive. The goal of this soft skill training is to empower individual employees to excel in their careers and build meaningful relationships.
The infographic below highlights some of the major differences between hard skills and soft skills.
Made with Visme Infographic Maker
The following are some benefits of creating a soft skill training program in your company:
A study revealed that 50% of employees prefer to work for companies or businesses that have their growth and development at heart. With soft skill training, you send a powerful message to your employees that their growth matters to the organization.
As a result of this, your employees feel empowered and valued through this skill development. They eventually become engaged and satisfied with their job.
Soft skills training also fosters a positive work environment. This can significantly increase employee retention and reduce turnover rates and recruitment costs.
Soft skills training not only enables active listening but also understanding, which in turn helps your employees communicate effectively. Team members easily convey ideas clearly, understand each other's personalities and work together to achieve one common goal.
Poor teamwork and communication can negatively impact performance, efficiency and productivity. By improving teamwork and communication skills, your employees can prevent conflicts, errors and misunderstandings.
Employees who have received training in soft skills, such as customer service, will be better able to meet the demands of consumers, earn their trust and handle challenging situations.
Prompt resolution of client concerns will in turn result in a higher degree of customer loyalty, satisfaction and repeat business.
Soft skill training such as problem-solving and creativity can improve individual innovative skills.
Research shows that companies that foster a culture of creativity through the development of soft skills see 2.6 times better sales growth and 2.5 times higher earnings margins than those that do not.
Team members can generate new ideas, brainstorm solutions and look out for products and services that add value to customers. This in turn helps the organization stay ahead of the competition while meeting customers' expectations.
Not only is leadership about authority but also about connecting with your team. It has been proven in a study that leaders with strong soft skills can boost their team members' performance by up to 30%.
Soft skills like emotional intelligence and empathy empower leaders to connect with their employees. This soft skill empowers leaders to provide better support, make informed decisions and lead their teams to success.
With Visme, you can create visually stunning and professional soft skill training courses for your company’s needs with little to no design experience.
Follow these six steps to build your soft skill training course using Visme.
The first step in training your staff in soft skills is identifying which skills will have the greatest impact. You can achieve this by conducting a thorough analysis of training needs to identify which soft skills are lacking among the employees.
Here are some ways to identify soft skill gaps:
Encourage employees to reflect on their own soft skills and identify areas where they may need improvement. The results of the assessment will show them where they are in terms of soft skills.
With Visme, there are two primary approaches to generating interactive surveys and quizzes.
The first option is to directly integrate surveys from external platforms like Survey Monkey or Typeform into your Visme project. No need to switch between various programs when using survey integration to keep everything in one location.
The second option is to construct a typeform survey right in the Visme dashboard. With Visme’s typeform integration, this is seamless, regardless of your prior design experience. You can easily add polls, clickable menus and even buttons to your survey with our drag-and-drop tools.
You can also choose one of Visme’s survey templates to visualize and present your survey results.
Managers should observe employees in action to assess how they handle situations that require soft skills. You can then gather feedback from supervisors and subordinates to gain a comprehensive view of an employee's soft skills.
Collect and analyze data related to employee performance, such as customer complaints or project outcomes, to pinpoint soft skill deficiencies.
Knowing what employees need to learn is just one step. Goal setting is just as important as it provides a clear direction for your training efforts.
Well-defined goals will help your employees understand what you want to achieve. Not only does it motivate you and your employees to stay focused and committed, but it will also assist you in gauging the effectiveness of the soft skill training.
When setting your training goals, ensure they align with the identified training gaps and the larger company goals. It’s also essential that your goals are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound).
Here is an example of a SMART soft skill training goal:
We will enhance communication skills, focusing on active listening, clarity and empathy, by dedicating at least 30 minutes per day for the next one month to practice, with weekly progress assessments, to foster better collaboration within the team.
Need help creating SMART training goals? Read these comprehensive guides below:
Also, access 17 goal-setting templates & worksheets to help you create one right now.
A soft skill training plan is a detailed document that provides a structured strategy for enhancing the soft skills of employees within an organization. It gives you a clear roadmap to achieve your soft skills training goals.
A typical employee training plan should include the following elements:
To ensure the effectiveness of your soft skill training, you should choose training methods customized to meet the needs of specific teams. Your training methods could include organizing coaching or mentoring program, peer learning, live workshops, online learning, role playing, simulation training and lots more.
Visme offers a wide range of features and readily customizable templates for crafting effective training plans. To learn more about how to create a training plan, read this guide.
To create your soft skill training course content, you don’t need to start from scratch. You can get a great jump start with Visme’s interactive training templates.
Visme offers a wide range of features to customize your designs. Even if you’re not a professional designer, Visme’s easy-to-use interface helps you do this seamlessly.
Hear what one of our users has to say about their experience with Visme:
“I like it because it is easy to use and I can create almost everything I want. I use it to create training modules and standard operating procedures for employees in the AG business."
- Wolfgang H.| Adjunct Professor
Here are some of Visme’s unique features and tools to facilitate your soft skills training program creation process:
Visme has a wide variety of visuals, including icons, illustrations, 3D animated graphics, stock photos and videos.
You can make your training materials more compelling by using these graphic tools. You can also utilize Visme to create engaging training videos for your soft skill training courses.
Additionally, Visme's AI image generator is your go-to tool if you need a distinctive visual. You can use the tool to convert your texts into beautiful graphics, such as photos, paintings, symbols, illustrations and more.
Make complex concepts or processes simpler for learners to understand by using Visme's visual storytelling tools like flowcharts, process diagrams and timelines.
Additionally, Visme comes with 20+ charts and graphs and 30+ data widgets that you can use to present complex data in a visually pleasing way.
Learners are more likely to retain information if they are actively engaged. One of the best ways to get them involved is to provide them with interactive content that reinforces what they've learned.
Use interactive tools in Visme, like quizzes and polls, to create memorable learning experiences. Also, use interactive features like clickable menus, table of contents, pop-ups, hotspots, hover effects and animations to spice up your content and keep viewers interested.
Visme's presentation recording software can help make lessons more memorable. A trainer or content developer can make use of their own device's camera and microphone to record an asynchronous presentation. Learners can also access the presentation course at their own time and at their own pace.
You can get help from Visme's AI writer if you have trouble writing content for your soft skills training course. This cutting-edge resource removes the guesswork from writing by assisting you in producing content that is meaningful to your target audience.
Simply input your instructions and the tool will quickly produce well-written, relevant content that fits your desired tone and style.
An accessible resource library facilitates remote and asynchronous learning, enabling employees or learners to access materials at their convenience. It also allows quick distribution of training materials to employees, saving time, effort and reducing chances of loss.
Visme is not just a content authoring tool but it supports secure document sharing with capabilities for managing your resource library.You can create and manage your learning resources such as training guides, manuals, checklists and lots more.
If your course is shared online using the live link, Visme's analytics tool lets you view the rate of course completion or the areas where employees spend more time. Additionally, if your courses are hosted on Visme, you can make changes in real time.
You can also host your courses and training materials on an efficient Learning Management System (LMS). Check out our top 12 picks here. Visme supports SCORM, HTML5 and xAPI exports are also supported by Visme. This means you can design and export your training materials using Visme without having to worry about LMS compatibility.
These are some ways to incorporate soft skill training in your company:
Your training schedule reveals the specific dates and times for training sessions, including the duration of each session. Plan a schedule that wouldn’t interfere with your company's operations. Consider offering both in-person and online training options to accommodate various learning preferences and work schedules.
Visme’s schedule maker can help you create your training schedule in a professional manner. Simply choose a template and customize it in the schedule builder to fit your needs.
Here’s an easily customizable schedule template you can use right away:
Ensure that the soft skill training is interactive and engaging and provides opportunities for the practical application of skills. You should also encourage employees to apply the newly acquired skills in their daily tasks and provide support and resources to enable them continually hone these skills.
Peer learning cannot only help build and grow stronger teams but also lead to improved performance and success for the business.
Encourage peer learning by maximizing learning activities that allow your employees to learn from each other. For example, you can host group discussions or brainstorming sessions where employees can share their insights related to a particular soft skill. This will foster collaboration and communication.
You can also organize team-building exercises or games that require soft skills, helping employees develop these skills in a fun and engaging way. For instance, employees can pair up and practice soft skills such as active listening, empathy, or negotiation through role-playing scenarios relevant to their roles.
You should continuously monitor employees' performance to see if the trained soft skills are being applied effectively in their roles. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the impact of soft skills training on the company's overall performance and employee satisfaction.
Here are some ways to measure your KPIs:
Establish a feedback mechanism, such as regular surveys or one-on-one discussions to gather employees' opinions on the training program. Analyze this feedback for insights on how to improve the training.
Recognize and Reward
Acknowledge and reward employees who demonstrate significant improvement in their soft skills. This incentivizes participation and reinforces the importance of these skills. You could reward them through peer recognition, assigning them to special projects, or presenting them with awards and certificates.
You can create your employee awards and certificates using Visme’s free certificate maker. Start with one of our free, editable certificate templates, which you can download as a ready-to-print PDF.
Just like with any type of program, it’s best to reevaluate within a predetermined amount of time. What’s working? What isn’t? Do you need to measure metrics differently?
Regular evaluation helps identify areas where the training can be improved and ensures that employees are receiving the best possible opportunities for skill enhancement.
Soft skills are not just valuable in the workplace; they are essential for personal and professional success, contributing to better communication, teamwork, leadership and overall well-being. Investing in your employees' soft skills training will positively impact their profit, growth and future opportunities.
With the help of Visme's easy-to-use interface and extensive library of design templates and features, you can seamlessly create your training programs in an easily digestible style.
In Visme’s library, you’ll find templates for creating various learning resources such as presentation courses, test learning, quick learning guides or job aids, check-off lists, training videos, ebooks and more.
Contact our sales team to discover how Visme can help level up your employee training program.
Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.
Try Visme for free
