53 Surprising Stats: Character Education Fuels Career Success

Back in the day, when you would ask anyone what career skills you would need to succeed, they almost always mentioned technical skills such as web development, data analysis, and cloud computing.

Today, the opposite is true. 

As we enter the fourth industrial revolution, many of the technical skills or hard skills are being automated by robots and artificial intelligence.

However, there’s one thing a machine can only dream of recreating, and that’s the human experience.

Now, more than ever, companies are looking for employees who display soft skills that make for a harmonious and prosperous work environment. 

Not surprisingly, these soft skills are based on character education values and include communication, leadership, critical thinking, and analytical thinking.

Today, we’re going to look at some of the most surprising statistics on how character education values fuel career success. We’ll also cover:

• How Google realized there’s more to running a technology company than technological expertise
• The top five most sought-after soft skills globally
• How soft skill training benefits both the employer and the employee

Without further ado, let’s delve straight into the 53 intriguing character education facts that are going to knock your socks off.

1. Non-cognitive skills and character strengths significantly impact success. Children with greater character strengths are more likely to graduate high school with a GPA greater than 2.5 and are more likely to graduate from college.
2. Soft skills are so crucial that companies are creating programs to foster them in the work environment. According to a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 77% of organizations are actively working towards implementing soft skills to adapt to the ever-changing workforce.
3. Executives believe that it’s better to instill character education values in students than adults. As a matter of fact, according to an AMA survey, 80% of executives believe that students taught the four Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) are better equipped to thrive in the workforce.

1. Research going back as far as a century ago proves that soft skills are crucial for running a successful company. This is according to a study conducted by the Carnegie Foundation in 1918, which shows that 85% of job success is attributed to excellent soft and people skills.
2. Organizations are investing heavily in soft skill education. According to ASTD’s State of the Industry Report, in 2010, U.S. companies spent $171.5 billion in employee learning and development, with 27.6% of these funds going into soft skills development.
3. Employers have consistently indicated critical thinking, collaboration, work ethic, and communication as must-have career competencies. These findings are a result of the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook Survey conducted in 2019. 
4. Non-cognitive skills, such as drive and prudence significantly impact success. Children demonstrating these character strengths are more likely to graduate high school with a higher GPA, less likely to be arrested as adolescents, and more likely to graduate from college.
5. Soft skills are crucial for employment and business growth, with 93% of employers terming them as "very important" or "essential". Moreover, 85% of job success is attributed to excellent soft and people skills, and 30 to 40% of future jobs will depend on social-emotional skills.
6. Creativity and resilience are required to maintain tenacity and enthusiasm in an ever-evolving work environment. Research shows that creativity and resilience increase with age through a collection of experiences and lifelong learning and the sooner a foundation is established, the better.
7. Good leaders are forged, not born. Organizations can strengthen leadership qualities, such as integrity, honesty, and empathy, by offering on-the-job learning experiences, mentorship programs, and formal development opportunities to their most promising employees.
8. According to data commissioned by McDonald’s in the United Kingdom, soft skills are worth a whooping £88 billion. The study, conducted by the Development Economics research group, also found that unless these skills are improved, more than half of U.K. employees will miss out on job opportunities by the end of the decade.
9. Employees generally struggle to sell their soft skills. A study in the U.K. found one in five interviewees is not confident enough to describe their soft skills to an employer, and 54% have never included soft skills on their CV.
10. In 2023, analytical and creative thinking remain the most important skills companies are on the lookout for in employees. In fact, according to The Future of Jobs Report, analytical thinking constitutes 9% of the core skills required by companies.
11. Although both are essential for complex problem-solving in the workplace, creative thinking is gaining more traction than analytical thinking in terms of demand. Other skills ranked among the top 10 must-have core skills include technological literacy, resilience, self-awareness, curiosity, and lifelong learning. 
12. In the next five years, analytical and creative thinking are the skills with the highest priority for training. Analytical thinking is set to take 10% of the predicted training initiatives, while creative thinking will take 8%.
13. Two-thirds of companies that invest in training core skills, such as flexibility, analytical thinking, leadership, and social influence, are expected to gain a return on investment (ROI) within a year of the initiative. The ROI will manifest in the form of increased cross-role mobility and enhanced worker productivity.
14. Shockingly, 46% of new employees are either fired or quit within 18 months, and 89% of them fail because they lack soft skills, such as the ability to coexist with other workers and professionalism. 
15. During its founding years, Google took to only hiring STEM graduates on account of it being a tech company. However, after conducting research on their hiring hypothesis, they found out that of the eight most important skills of their top employees, experience in STEM came dead last.
16. In 2013, Google found that the seven top skills necessary for success in their company were all soft skills, such as listening and communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, being a good coach, and making connections across complex concepts.
17. According to a research study conducted by Google called Project Aristotle, the most monumental and productive ideas came from teams that displayed soft skills such as emotional intelligence, generosity, empathy, and equality.
18. When employees across five factories in Bangalore underwent a 12-week soft skills training program, the results were incredible. The factories reported a 250% ROI within eight months of the program’s conclusion, due to a boost in worker productivity, among other benefits.
19. Employers are not the only ones who benefit from soft skills training. A randomized controlled trial focused on employees who received a 12-week soft skills training found that those who received the training experienced increased wages, a better opinion of themselves as workers, and saved more for their children’s education.
20. In 2016, a nationwide survey of 750 employers in the U.S. sent a clear message to students and educators: soft skills are extremely valuable, and most entry-level candidates lack them. In fact, only 31% of these respondents reported having entry-level employees with satisfactory soft skills.
21. The fact that students are not taught character education values from a young age is incredibly alarming because 97% of employers agree that, in one way or another, soft skills affect employee job performance.
22. According to a research paper by Microsoft and McKinsey, 30 to 40% of future jobs are going to be based on social-emotional skills such as empathy, collaboration, and cooperation.
23. As we enter the fourth industrial revolution, soft skills are becoming increasingly valuable because they distinguish human aspects from digital entities. As robots and AI take over many traditional jobs, it’ll become essential for educators to focus on what makes us distinctly human.
24. Social-emotional skills, such as flexibility and entrepreneurship, are the key to helping students adapt to a world where most traditional jobs will be replaced or become obsolete. These skills will enable them to manage change, regulate their emotions, and handle their disappointment effectively.
25. There’s a considerable soft skill gap in the global economy, and employers can’t fill it alone. According to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 51% of the respondents felt like the education system has done little to nothing to address the skill shortage crisis.
26. Soft skills can either make or break a company. According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Report, 92% of talent professionals consider soft skills crucial, if not more than hard skills. In fact, 80% of them believe soft skills are becoming progressively more important for company success.
27. The pandemic has redefined work flexibility as a staple in the work environment. Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a 78% increase in job posts on LinkedIn that mention work flexibility as a must-have.
28. Work flexibility benefits a diverse workforce tremendously. The increase in demand for flexible employees has opened up professional growth opportunities for military spouses, people with disabilities, and caretakers.
29. Managers have the power to influence the perceptions, attitudes, and processes of their employees, but many do not. As a matter of fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 69% of managers aren’t comfortable communicating with employees about their lack of soft skills. 
30. Interestingly, over 37% of managers who participated in a survey by Interact confessed that they feel uncomfortable when they have to give an employee feedback that they may respond to in a negative manner.
31. Research conducted by Harvard Business Review suggests that employees actually prefer to receive negative feedback because they consider it essential for workplace success and development.
32. The Graduate Management Admission Council’s (GMAC) annual corporate recruiters survey asked 700 global corporate recruiters what skills are important for graduates to have. 81% of them stated that interpersonal skills were more important than any other kind of skill.
33. According to recruiters who took part in a GMAC survey, 57% of them predict that the demand for interpersonal skills is only going to increase in the next five years. 
34. GMAC also reported that although new business graduates are adequately proficient in information gathering, analytical thinking, and quantitive expertise, their experience was found extremely lacking in areas that recruiters consider important, such as adaptability, leadership, and communication.
35. When Kevin Murray, the author of four best-selling books on leadership, interviewed 80 CEOs for his first book, most of them agreed on one thing. Leaders have to act with integrity, connect with people on an emotional level, and be authentic in order to inspire others to great performance.
36. Harvard Business Review conducted a study on the job descriptions of 5,000 CEOs from 2000-2017. They noticed a significant shift in the qualities that companies look for in C-suite executives. Instead of focusing on technical expertise and administrative skills, they now prioritize one qualification above the rest: strong social skills.
37. According to a study by KRW International, CEOs who displayed four moral principles—integrity, compassion, forgiveness, and responsibility—achieved an average return of assets of 9.35% over a two-year period. That’s almost five times as much as “self-focused CEOs.”
38. A study conducted by MIT researchers on focus groups of 300 business leaders from England, Hong Kong, the U.S., and Canada concluded that the character of leaders tremendously contributed to the 2008 global economic crisis.
39. Historically, evidence suggests that in high-profile cases, such as the Boeing 737 Max tragedy, the Volkswagen Emissions scandal, and the global financial crisis, there was substantial evidence of technical competence, but character was found lacking. 
40. Many modern psychological and philosophical notions of character stem from Aristotle’s theory. One analysis from Aristotle that has stood the test of time is that character development occurs gradually over time and is heavily influenced by the habits of our community and parents.
41. According to a 2021 study by Growth Engineering of Fortune 500 CEOs, 75% of long-term success is dependent on soft skills, while technical skills only account for 25%.
42. After leveraging data from 82 million job postings, American Suceeds reports that 50 million job ads requested soft skills as a prerequisite.
43. In a 2021 study by American Succeds, it was found that 29 million job postings specifically listed communication as a requirement for job consideration.
44. In 2021, the top five soft skills were requested 3.8 times more often than the top five hard skills, according to a study of 82 million job postings in the U.S. 
45. The shelf life of hard skills is five years, while soft skills will always be in demand. This information comes from LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report, which encourages companies to invest in soft skills such as communication, leadership, and creativity because most hard skills will be automated by AI.
46. Executives have recognized the need to incorporate soft skills into their companies. According to IBM, a significant amount of executives value soft skills above digital or technical skills, as they recognize how crucial they’ll be for future success.
47. The LinkedIn Workplace Report identified high-priority and low-priority skills for learning and development professionals, with soft skills ranking highest. Leadership and management topped the list at 57%, problem-solving and design thinking came in second at 42%, and communication ranked third at 40%.
48. In the same LinkedIn study, technical skills sat at the opposite end of the scale. Mobile computing represented 9%, cloud computing 8%, and engineering and coding 8%.
49. According to Udemy’s 2021 Workplace Learning Trends, people have been consuming time management and motivation courses at an astounding rate, 990% and 855%, respectively, compared to 2019. 
50. According to LinkedIn, the most in-demand skills globally are all soft skills that are related to character education values in one way or another. These skills include management, communication, customer service, leadership, and sales.

Discover More About the Complex and Beautiful Concept of Character Education

Well, there you have it.

53 of the most intriguing and insightful statistics that provide a glimpse into what the future of education and business will look like.

Positive Action has been teaching character education values to students since its founding in 1982. We offer a wide variety of evidence-based programs and curriculums used in 50 states, reaching 8 million students across 25,000 schools.

We are the only character education program in the country to be awarded the top rating of the U.S. Department of Education What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) in both ethical behavior domains and academic achievement.

To learn more about our programs, you can schedule a 30-minute overview webinar with us where we’ll discuss character education, program models, kits, lessons, research, and answer any questions you may have.