Is Training Effective to Develop Individual's Soft Skills in Organizations? Emphatic Communication Training on Friendly and Helpful Behavior in Private Hospital

Background Training is a common activity done in HR management practices. However, previous studies on the effectiveness of trainings show inconsistent results, in particular, on developing soft skills. Theoretically, achieving effectiveness is more difficult compared to hard skill training. Objectives This study is aimed at examining whether training is effective to develop individual's competencies in an organization, especially in the area of soft skills. Methods This research uses experimental method by The Untreated Control Group Design with Pre-Post-Test. The study was conducted at a private hospital X in Semarang city. The participants of this study comprised of 496 subjects, which were divided into experimental and control groups. The intervention given to the experimental group was empathic communication training which is aimed at building sumeh (friendly) and nulungan (helpful) behavior, as the actualization of organizational values. The measurement of friendly and helpful behavior was done before and after the intervention, that was by post-test 1 and post-test 2. Results There was a significant difference between the scores of pre-test and post-test 1 and there was no difference between the scores of post-test 1 and post-test 2 for experimental group. For the control group, there was no difference either between the scores of pre-test and post-test 1 or between post-test 1 and post-test 2. Conclusion Emphatic communication training is effective to develop friendly and helpful behavior, where both of the behaviors are included in soft skills category.