Enhancing Transfer of Soft Skills Training within the Dutch Police

Abstract
With soft skills of employees becoming increasingly
important for their successful performance, organisations
spend a large amount of money on employee
soft skills training. However, it often remains unclear
to what extend such training is effective. This
study shows that transfer results after a soft skills
training unfold in a stepwise, staged process, that
start with being motivated to transfer, followed by
using new skills. This use of skills may consequently
turn into improved performance. Additionally, the current research found that since the open character of soft skills may lead to many different types of outcomes in many different contexts (even unwanted transfer outcomes), being specific about the type, context and timeframe of performance (occurrence and measurement), is pivotal in gaining insight into successful transfer. In each transfer step, barriers to transfer may exist. Therefore, successful transfer also
needs the disabling or minimising of existing barriers to success.