Nowadays almost all organisations face the challenges and changes brought about by the modern business. Thus, we are interested to know in what degree our organisations have evolved and what today's employers think about introducing innovations, i.e. accepting current trends present on the world market related to affirmation of social competences. Overall, competences are of great importance for employee's work performance success. The basics of human resources management of every organisation is precisely resources management system. In order to achieve the greatest efficiency of employees, it is necessary to enable the basic preconditions for gaining efficiency, like training, mentoring, and everything else necessary for strengthening the competences required for performing work tasks. When talking about training, the most often opinion is that training is necessary for developing concrete knowledge and competences required for the job at hand. However, foreign market has become more open towards the development of some other competences, i.e. social competences, without which it is difficult to master concrete knowledge as they represent prerequisite for successful communication. In alignment with the abovementioned, Croatian employers are also keeping up with the trend of on-job- training with the purpose of strengthening not only professional, but also social competences. This research questions in what degree employers are devoted to the development of social competences of their employees and their importance for career promotion and long-term employability. The theoretical part of the paper talks about the importance of competences in contemporary society, with emphasis on the development and definition of social competences and their comparison with professional competences. When summarizing the research results, key professional and social competences are given and explained. Having in mind that doing business today is based on the contacts and cooperation with other people, the most often mentioned social competence is teamwork. Furthermore, the paper talks about the relationship between social competences, social capital, and emotional intelligence, which are inseparable. The full potential of emotional intelligence cannot be fulfilled without social competences, which pave the way for gaining social capital. Moreover, the role of environment in creating socially competent people is also emphasized. It is clear that social competences are developed from an early age and that parents, peers and caregivers are the ones who influence them the most. However, social development does not end here, it encompasses also higher education. Socialization is mentioned as the first step towards the development of socially competentV person, and it includes long, complex processes in which, interacting with the environment, an individual develops, shapes and learns relevant forms of experiencing and behaving in a society: beliefs, attitudes, values, rituals and customs. This paper supports the view that lifelong learning and education, and especially higher education, are the key for success on the labour market, whereby promotion and long-term employability are taken as measures of business performance success. The theoretical part of the paper concludes that humans, as social and emotional beings, find their happiness and advance in career development with the help of social relationships. The second part of the paper refers to the empirical research. The research is divided into two parts and a survey was conducted for its purpose. The first part refers to the employers in the Republic of Croatia. One hundred and thirteen employers from different size enterprises and different economic sectors completed the survey. The second part of the survey refers to students. Six hundred and sixty-five students of the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb and the University of Applied Sciences Baltazar Zaprešić completed the survey. The participants were the first and fifth year students. In alignment with the above mentioned, six hypothesis were created, some of which were not or were partially confirmed. The first part of the empirical part is based on a survey conducted on a sample of employers in the Republic of Croatia. The results of surveys have revealed a great deal of significant data. However, the basic premise is that the importance of social competences is indisputable for achieving career promotion and long-term employability. Looking at the overall results and assessment of the importance of all competences from the perspective of different economic sectors, it cannot be categorically argued that a particular sector attaches greater importance to particular social competences for the purpose of achieving promotion or long-term employability of employees. There are significant differences between the HR managers, as one target group of respondents, and the top management, or the owners of organizations, as the other target group of respondents. The results show that, on average, HR leaders gave all competences greater importance, that is, higher grades than the top management. Despite the fact that almost all questions and answers point to the great importance attached to social competences in comparison with professional competences, it is concluded that it is impossible to distinguish one from the other, that is, it is impossible to define only one type of competence as necessary for advancement and long-term employability. The results of the survey among employers also point to the inconsistency of employers' opinions. On one hand, social competences are perceived as less important compared to professional competences (by theVI average of the marks awarded). On the other hand, when asked directly whether social competences are more important than professional ones, the vast majority of employers agreed that they were more important. The second part of the empirical part focuses on economics and business students of higher education institutions, i.e. the higher education system. The research focuses on measuring the current level of students’ social competence and on the development of social competence through study. The emphasis of the research is also on students' perceptions of the importance of social competences and on the differences between professional and social competences. The results show a significant development of empathy through study, which is one of the main components of social competences, but also reveal that communication and conflict management skills do not develop significantly during study. Given that among all the aforementioned (social and professional) competences, communication skills are listed as the most important and empathy as the least important, the results of the research indicate a weak point of the higher education system - namely, communication skills do not develop proportionally with the years of study. The results of student surveys show that students are aware of the importance of social competences in the business world, assessing them as more important than professional competences. They also show that the personal level of students' social competences, based on self-analysis, is sufficient to achieve business success, according to the employers and HR managers of business enterprises in Croatia. In addition to these results, the dissertation paper provides other relevant findings, such as socio demographic characteristics of the participants and the differences between public and private university students. The research shows that private university students are more socially competent than public university students based on their self-analysis. The results indicate differences in students' social competences depending on the students' performance in the study and the frequency of class attendance, as well as many others. The final research findings highlight the importance of social competences for career promotion and long-term employability, both from students' and employers' point of view, but also indicate there is room for improvement within the higher education system so that it is more aligned with current employers' needs.