Bridge Your Soft Skills Gap
Introduction
For
decades employers as well as educators frequently complain about a lack in soft
skills among graduates from universities and education institutions. Mostly
missed are communication skills, but additional knowledge in entrepreneurship, business
or project management is also ranking highly on the list of missing skills
desirable for graduates entering the corporate world. This problem is no way to
limited developing nations like Sri Lanka, but also to developed countries.
Soft
Skills is a very popular term nowadays, used to indicate personal transversal
competences such as social aptitudes, language and communication capability,
friendliness and ability of working in team and other personality traits that
characterize relationships between people. Soft Skills are traditionally
considered complementary of Hard Skills, which are the abilities to perform a
certain type of task or activity. Soft Skills are strategic to be successful in
personal and professional life then are essential for a candidate when he tries
to obtain any kind of job (Cimatti,
2016).
Soft
Skills are extremely important for every individual to sustain and grow in any work
place and in life (Mitchell, 2008). According to (Meeks, 2017) , Having a
college diploma or a technical degree does not assure that a person has the abilities
to be effective in the work environment, nor does it guarantee a job. Although
a university degree is important to employers, a degree is not always a
guarantee that a person is fully armed with the skills to meet the needs of the
job market. Employers are looking for people who can offer hard skills as well
as soft skills. Significant evidence demonstrated that soft skills are
competencies that can help an individual better meet the needs of a particular
job and help an individual advance in his or her career.
Definition
Soft
Skills term used to denote a set of intangible personal abilities, behaviors,
attributes, habits and attitudes that can be used in many types of jobs and
careers (Perreault, 2004). skills include: communication and presentation,
leadership, teamwork, analytical thinking and creative problem solving,
professional and morality, learning, usage of information technology, development
of interpersonal relationship empathy, sense of responsibility, integrity,
self-esteem, self-management, motivation, flexibility, sociability, time
management and making decisions (Ariratana et
al., 2015). The term is also used in contrast to ‘hard’ skills that are
considered as more technical, highly specific in nature and particular to an
occupation, and that can be imparted more easily than soft skills (UNESCO,
2018).
According
to (Dewiyani, 2015), Soft skills can be classified into two, internal and external
personal skills. Internal soft skills refer to individual’s ability in managing
himself for optimally developing works for example, self-confidence,
self-control, accepting criticism, resilience, perseverance, growth mindset time
management, stress management and creative thinking. Meanwhile, external soft
skills are defined as individual’s skills in managing their relationship with
others for optimum work developments, example collaborative team work,
networking, adaptability, influence, managing conflicts, ability to motivate, leadership
and negotiation. (Schulz, 2008) defines “Soft skills refer to the cluster of
personality traits, social graces, facility with language, personal habits,
friendliness, and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills
complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job”.
Importance of soft skills
According
to (Sejzi et al., 2013) Soft skills
play a highly significant role in the work place as well as in one’s career and
personal success. Similarly, As
per (John, 2015) “Soft skills play a very important role in this dynamic
commercial age. Today there is a huge mass of qualified job seekers existing in
the society and the competition within them for job acquisition and job
sustainability is becoming tougher. To get an edge over the competitors they
are left with no other choice but to add worth to their hard skills with soft
skills to exhibit their true potential”.
As stated by (Schulz, 2008) there
are many reasons for having a serious look at person’s soft skills, one of the
reasons is today’s job-market, which in many fields is becoming increasingly
competitive. To be competitive in this
tough and challenging market , candidates for jobs have to bring along a
“competitive edge” that differentiate them from other competitors with similar professional
and academic qualifications and similar evaluation results. As
per (Majid et al., 2012) it is now a
proven fact that companies are increasingly putting more weight on soft skills,
it is equally important that candidates should also sufficiently appreciate the
value of such skills and make serious efforts to gain them.
Recent
research (Ramlan and Ngah, 2015) has been identified that most engineering
students graduate with acquisition of technical skills, fail to get a job due
to lack of soft skills. It is also being the biggest challenge for institutions
of higher learning to develop employable skills, enhance knowledge and make
graduates more attractive to employers. Evidence from surveys suggested that
employers are more concerned about soft skills or attitudes rather than
technical knowledge or competencies. The new situation cannot be overlooked and evidence bears
out that businesses need these skills to ensure success as much as employees
need them to ensure they are able to do their jobs. Even in highly technical
roles such as IT, professionals with wide and deep knowledge of their subject
are increasingly finding it difficult to get hired because they lack harmonizing
people skills (World Economic Forum, 2016). Apparently, Soft skills
play a highly significant role in the work place as well as in one’s career and
personal success (Sejzi et al., 2013).
Hard Skills vs Soft skills
Hard Skills
Hard
skills are teachable abilities or skill sets that are easy to measure and
learned in the classroom, through books or other training materials, or on the
job (Deen, 2017).
Example:
§ Banking,
engineering, accounting, teaching, manufacturing
§ Proficiency in a foreign language
§ Analysis,
research
§ Legal,
medical, technical
§ Rules
stay the same irrespective of Company or Culture
Soft Skills
Soft
skills are fundamentally people's skills or behavior specific skills. soft
skills are non-technical, intangible, personality specific skills which
determines an individual's strength as a leader, listener and negotiator, or as
a conflict negotiator. Soft skills are the characters and capabilities of
attitude and behaviour rather than of knowledge or technical aptitude (John,
2015).
Example:
§ attitude,
Flexibility, Teamwork, leadership
§ communication,
Persuasion
§ Creative
and critical thinking, professionalism.
§ Motivation,
Patience
Careers
that need hard skills and little soft skills - Brilliant people (like
Einstein) who may not easily work well with others but can still be very
successful in their career (example: Physicists, Scientists, Analysts)
Careers
that need both hard and soft skills – many careers are in this category
(example: Accountants, Lawyers, Doctors, Architects, Engineers, Pilots)
Careers
that need mostly soft skills and little hard skills (example: sales job is more
dependent on ability to read customers, communicate sales pitch, persuasion
skills, and skills to close to deal.
Hard skills can be easily taught to
most people with the right training tools. However, it’s widely recognized that
soft skills are harder to learn and to train (Cukier et al., 2015). The reason is that over a lifetime work, habits and
attitudes become deep-rooted. Developing new soft skills includes changing
attitudes, work viewpoint and overcome personal character flaws. Debatably, it
takes much more commitment, mindfulness of one’s own flaws and openness to
overcome a personal trait than a lack of technical knowledge. In short, Soft skills are more important in
most business careers than hard skills (Patacsil and Tablatin, 2017)
Practical Application
“For decades,
major emphasis of the education system as well as of the organizations was on
IQ rather than EQ. A student who has scored high in the exam is considered to
be a good student and others are considered to be poor. The emphasis was merely
on the logical, analytical reasoning, verbal skills, math skills. Earlier
researcher believed that a good IQ guarantees success in life. But now, despite
good IQ level and great analytical skills, employees are failing miserably on
the professional front. It was then realized that mere dependence on IQ does
not guarantee success in life as it is a narrow concept and does not consider
the wide knowledge and abilities of a fertile human mind. Therefore, now
researchers are focusing on the emotional aspect which helps an individual to
be aware about his/ her emotions as well as the emotions of others. Research
has shown that IQ is important to get an entry in the organization but
afterwards it is EQ that guarantees success to an individual” (Sherry, 2016). For example in Sri Lankan business context is one
of the largest conglomerates diversified in Health care, Construction,
manufacturing, education and trading sectors whose founder is an average
educated person but a Leader and a giant in Business world because of his high
Emotional intelligence (EI), leadership and interpersonal skills. Hundreds of
professionals such as professors, doctors, engineers, architects work for him
as an employees today for a pay cheque at the end of the month. In fact,
emotional intelligence—the ability to, for instance, understand your effect on
others and manage yourself accordingly—accounts for nearly 90 percent of what
moves people up the ladder when IQ and technical skills are roughly similar
(Goleman, 2004)
Figure
1.0: Emerging skills
(Source : World Economic
Forum, 2016)
Most Changing Skills
soft
skills depends very much on the context and one’s personal awareness. However,
there is one property that directly comes to most people’s mind when soft
skills are mentioned: those are the communication skills. And indeed, it is the
talent of communication skills, which is mostly lacking among graduates from
colleges and universities (Schulz, 2008).
The
next more commonly cited skill was critical thinking, although there was significant
argument about its definition and how it related to other intellectual skills.
Critical thinking requires an attitude of open-mindedness, an ability to accept
vagueness and to question one’s own opinions, and an responsiveness of the
impact of emotion and individual experience on one’s views (Cukier et al., 2015).
“Creativity
will become one of the top skills workers will need. With the avalanche of new
products, new technologies and new ways of working, workers are going to have
to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes. Robots may help
us get to where we want to be faster, but they can’t be as creative as humans.
Whereas negotiation and flexibility/adaptability are high on the list of skills
for 2015, in 2020 they will begin to drop from the top 10 as machines, using
masses of data, begin to make our decisions” (World Economic forum, 2016).
Conclusion
Workers
geared with soft skills and high EQ are better equipped to work in teams,
adjust to change and be flexible. No matter how many degrees or other on-paper
qualifications a person has, if he does not have certain emotional qualities,
he or she is unlikely to succeed. As the workplace continues to evolve, making
room for new technologies and innovations, these qualities are becoming
increasingly important (Sherry, 2016).
The
nature of the change will depend very much on the industry itself. Global media
and entertainment, for example, has change in the past five years. The
financial services and investment sector, however, has yet to be radically
transformed. Those working in sales and manufacturing will need new skills,
such as technological literacy. Some advances are ahead of others. Mobile
internet and cloud technology are already impacting the way we work. Artificial
intelligence (AI) , 3D printing and advanced materials are still in their early
stages of use, but the pace of change will be fast.
By
2020, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have brought us advanced robotics
and autonomous transport, artificial intelligence and machine learning,
advanced materials, biotechnology and genomics (Schwab, 2016). These
developments will transform the way we live, and the way we work. Some jobs
will disappear, others will grow and jobs that don’t even exist today will
become commonplace. What is certain is that the future workforce will need to
align its skillset to keep pace.
Reference
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W., Hodson, J. and Omar, A. (2015) “Soft
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M. J. (2015) Improving Students Soft Skills using Thinking Process Profile
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Nishan, your blog interestingly explains the value of soft skills in todays context. Both hard and soft skills are necessary in todays competitive world. However, hard skills are more easier to acquire than soft skills (Dean, 2017). There are around ten soft skills that have been identified to be relevant to business context such as team work, work ethics, communication, self management , self confidence, problem solving, negotiation, decision making, interpersonal skill (William, 2015 cited in Patacsil et al., 2017). According to Hurrel (2016) there are lot of employees in organizations with deficient in soft skills. Moreover, Patacsil et al. (2017) state that one of the major issues in Philippines IT industry is lack of soft skills in their employees. Therefore employers need to pay more attention in the areas of soft skills of their employees and need to take necessary actions to fill the gap.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for your valuable comment.For your information, the twenty-first century workforce has experienced tremendous changes due to advances in technology; accordingly, the “old or conventional way” of doing things may be effective but not efficient (Redmann & Kotrlik, 2004). The National Business Education Association (NBEA) indicated that the scarcity of skills challenging today’s dynamic workforce goes beyond academic, theoretical and hands-on work-related skills. Thus, the best way to equip potential employees for tomorrow’s workforce is to develop not only technical but also soft skills.
DeleteDear Nishan, Adding more to your Topic , Soft Skills is another way of saying that you need to have good people skills. The term ‘people skills’ is quite broad, so Soft Skills gives a direct correlation while also contrasting to hard skills—the talents and abilities that can be taught and developed like nursing, working as a physical therapist assistant, accountant, networking administrator, or paralegal. Such hard skills all need to be supported with a good range of Soft Skills. Ideally, one cannot perform well without the other.( Florida National University Magazine, Oct 2017 ).
ReplyDeleteIn relation to quality assurance, the newly established regulators for both sectors have had a rough start. The tertiary education regulator from the start has been under severe criticism for being overly bureaucratic, out of touch with the dynamics of the sector and inflexible. Although it
appears that under new leadership it is changing direction to becoming more responsive. The vocational sector regulator has proven to be fully unprepared (and underfunded) for the massive task of regulating 4,000 plus providers in the context of a deregulated, competitive market.
While the move to a competitive market has been driven by ideology at both the state and Commonwealth levels, market strategy has been largely absent. Assumed efficiencies have been subsumed in wasteful competition, with particularly negative effects for the TAFE institutions across the board. This has been further compounded by a policy fiasco that resulted from a poorly developed implementation of VET FEEHELP policy. As summarized by Noonan (2016)
Dear Hemendra, thank you very for your valuable thoughts on "People Skills" . The paradigm shift in the twenty-first century employees has forced employees to be well geared with soft skills (Ganzel, 2001). James and James (2004) established that soft skills have become enormously crucial even in technical atmospheres. Evenson (1999) added that when students are equipped with soft skills, it could make the difference in finding and retaining the jobs and careers for which they have been prepared.
DeleteTimm (2005) reported that the employment shift that America faces requires employees to provide more personal interaction (People skills) with others than ever before; accordingly, having only traditional technical or hard skills will not be adequate in the challenging global marketplace. According to James and James (2004), hard (technical) skills were historically the only skills required to find and retain employment; however, recent history has shown many examples of how technical skills alone have failed to protect employees from downsizing, position cuts, and lay-offs.
Nishan it’s a vital topic to discuss and as per your document and adding more to what you have said Hard skills are the technical requirements of a job the student is trained to do and soft skills fulfil an important role in shaping an individual’s personality (Schulz, 2008). Employers expect graduates to have technical and discipline competences from their degrees but require graduates to also demonstrate a range of broader skills and attributes that include team-working, communication, leadership, critical thinking, problem solving and managerial abilities when they apply for an job opportunity (Lowden, Hall,Elliot, & Lewin, 2011). Schulz (2008) argues that what exactly are soft skills is a basic question, which is not easy to answer because the perception of what is a soft skill differs from context to context. Moreover, the understanding of what should be recognised as a soft skill varies widely. Employees need to be skilled at managing conflict and creating inclusion for improved team performance and for collaboration in generating innovative ideas(Sultana, 2014). Therefore employees that possess skills that allow them to negotiate solutions or reformulate work processes by taking a systems approach make them more effective contributors to the organisation (Davis & Muir, 2004)
ReplyDeleteDear Amali,
DeleteThank you very much for your valuable opinion on subject matter. In deed it is a valid argument. However, Perreault (2004) defined “soft” skills as personal abilities, attributes, or the level of commitment of a person that differentiate him or her apart from other individuals who may have similar qualifications and technical skills and experience. James and James (2004) agreed that soft skills are a new way to define a set of aptitudes, values or talents that an individual can bring to the organization. Soft skills describe certain career characteristics that individuals may own like the ability to work on a team, communication skills, leadership skills, customer service, and problem solving skills. Employers Value Communication and Interpersonal Skills , specified that one who communicates effectively, easily gets along with others, embraces collaborative teamwork, takes initiative, and has a strong work ethic is considered to have an gifted set of soft skills. Sutton (2002) found that soft skills are paramount important that employers identify them as “the number one differentiator” for job applicants (candidates) in all types of industries. According to Sutton, soft skills have become extremely important in all types of jobs and careers. Wilhelm (2004) emphasized and claimed that employers grade soft skills highest in importance for entry-level success in the workplace.
Nishan, We’ve been studying young people in the workplace since 1993 — from Generation X to the first-wave millennial and now to the second-wave millennial entering the workforce. Based on more than two decades of research, the evidence is clear: There is an ever-widening “Soft Skills Gap” in the workforce, especially among the newest young workforce. “Soft skills” in contrast to “hard skills” encompass a wide range of non-technical skills like “work habits” and “people skills” and “good attitude” and “a service mindset.” These skills may be less tangible and harder to define and measure than many of the “hard skills,” but they are absolutely critical to the success or failure of any individual in the workplace, especially in retail.
ReplyDeleteDear Jancy,
DeleteI totally agree with your opinion on “skill Gap”, gap between raw talents and required talents. Numerous researches and surveys prove that the Skill Gap in employability mostly concerns Soft Skills than Hard Skills. This gap expresses the discrepancy between the human resources seeking for a job and the requirements of enterprises to recruit staff for vacant positions. A lot of vacancies go unfilled due to a skills shortage in mostly concerning Soft Skills such as punctuality, accuracy, professionalism, ethics (Cinque, 2015). The Bloomberg research carried on in 2015, studying the MBA’s market (Master in Business Administration) in USA, emphasize that the most looked-for and hardest to find skills are communication, leadership, problem-solving and strategic thinking skills. A NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) research of the same year shows that employers mainly look for leaders who can work as part of a team and communicate effectively. Then these studies confirm the importance for employers of Soft Skills.
Dear Nishan ,as you correctly said having a collage diploma or a technical degree does not guarantee that the person has the competencies to be successful in the work environment ,nor does it guarantee a job (Association for talent development, 2012).A degree is not always a guarantee that person is fully equipped with the skills to meet the need of the job market (Casner-Lotto and Barrington,2006).A person's success in the work environment depends 15%on hard skills and 85%on soft skills (Wats and Wats ,2008).As you stated, emotional intelligence(EI) is the framework of soft skills .it is the person's ability to perceive and manage one's own states, motives and behaviors and act optimally based on the perceived information (Thorndike,1920).it's a type of social intelligence which includes the appraisal of non-verbal expressions ,regulation of one's emotions and the application of this information to solve problems (Salovey and Mayer,1993).Emotional intelligence gives the skills in the soft domain that make an individual more competitive in the work environment(Goleman,1998).Salovey and Mayer (1993)noted 5 components of EI as self awareness, self regulation, empathy, internal motivation and social skills .People with high EI are more prone to develop abilities that are part of soft skills set such as team work, effective communication and skills in social interactions (Goleman,1998).
ReplyDeleteDear Nadeesha,
DeleteThank you very much for your valuable comment. In short, both of us agreed that the emotional intelligence is an vital element to determine someone’s skills and competencies in communication and IT. Mostly, the single entity of general intelligence (IQ) is not a guarantee or assuarence for individual success in life, job and career. Psychologists have noted that general intelligence alone only contribute around 20% of individual success in life, job and careers, while the remaining 80% comes from other factors such as emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995). It is said that individuals have some abilities in using emotions in order to improve thought effectively than others (Rastegar & Karami, 2013). Accordingly, emotional intelligence literature has grown since then (Mayer & Caruso, 2008; Matthews, Roberts, & Zeidner, 2004; Subramanyam, 2012). In discussing skills and competencies, emotional factors must be taken into account. A study on 448 college students in United States of America found that there were variances in terms of students’ performance among those who have high and low level of EI. Students with higher emotional intelligence have better academic performance compared to those with lower emotional intelligence (Stump, Husman, & Corby, 2014).
Dear Nishan, Soft skills have become a crucial an increasingly sort after quality for careers in corporate world, irrespective of the sector. According to Serby Richard (2003) modern corporate requirements are such that they look specifically for those candidates who can add value to their organization with their soft skills and the ability to develop and use soft skills which can make the difference between a job offer and enjoyment of new employment. This view point is verified by Hewitt Sean (2008) that, employers value soft skills because they are just as good as indicator of job performance as traditional job qualifications. So today's professionals need to encompass a high soft skills quotient, apart from the domain knowledge in order to succeed in this competitive era.
ReplyDeleteDear Shameer,
DeleteYes, I agree with your comment. Soft Skills is a very popular term these days, used to specify personal transversal capabilities such as social abilities, life or people skills, language and communication capability, adaptability, friendliness and ability of working in team and other personality traits that characterize relationships with others. Soft Skills are conventionally considered complementary of Hard Skills, which are the capabilities to perform a certain type of task, job or activity. Soft Skills are strategic to be successful in personal and professional life then are important for a applicant when he tries to find any kind of job. Organizations generally hire new employees, in particular recent graduates and diploma holders taking more in consideration their Soft Skills than their Hard Skills. This happens also for technical professions, such as engineers, doctors, lawyers because the company, in order to be competitive, needs to create effective teams and a collaborative working environment. The quality of products or services provided by any industry then doesn’t only depend on the materials chosen and on the technology used, neither only on the know-how of workers who contribute to their production, but also on the quality of the organization in its whole. And this quality strongly depends from the human resources involved and their capability of positively interacting to achieve a common goals and objectives the organization success.
Dear Nishan ,Further adding more to what you have said “Skills refer to the level of performance of an individual on a particular task or the capability to perform a job well which can be divided into technical elements and behavioral elements” (Noe,Hollenbeck & Gerhart, 2015). Technical elements measure “HARD” technical skills while the communication elements measure “soft” skills which include the attitudes and approaches applicants take to their work, such as the ability to collaborate on team projects (Daud, Abidin,Sapuan & Rajadurai, 2012). Skills gap is defined “as the difference between the markets need (demand) and the current skills supplied by local education institutes (supply)” (Alsafadi &Abunafesa, 2012).
ReplyDeleteDear Shanaka,
DeleteI totally agree with your opinion on “skill Gap”, gap between raw talents and required talents. Numerous researches and surveys prove that the Skill Gap in employability mostly concerns Soft Skills than Hard Skills. This gap expresses the discrepancy between the human resources seeking for a job and the requirements of enterprises to recruit staff for vacant positions. A lot of vacancies go unfilled due to a skills shortage in mostly concerning Soft Skills such as punctuality, accuracy, professionalism, ethics (Cinque, 2015). The Bloomberg research carried on in 2015, studying the MBA’s market (Master in Business Administration) in USA, emphasize that the most looked-for and hardest to find skills are communication, leadership, problem-solving and strategic thinking skills. A NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) research of the same year shows that employers mainly look for leaders who can work as part of a team and communicate effectively. Then these studies confirm the importance for employers of Soft Skills.
Nishan, Graduates may have important critical thinking and communications skills, they may lack the particular soft skills required by employers (Cukier, 2014; Singmaster, 2013).Moreover soft skills are a new way to describe a set of abilities or talents that an individual can bring to the workplace, including career attributes such as team skills, communications skills, leadership skills, customer service skills and problem solving skills (James, 2004). Furthermore soft skills are so important that employers identify them as the number one differentiator for job applications in all types of industries (Sutton, 2002). In addition a recent survey of 1538 Ontario employers, more than 70 per cent of respondents perceived that a gap exists in “essential skills” among their current employees and consequently that “there is clearly a need for improved essential skills in the workforce” (Conference Board of Canada, 2013). Therefore the employers need to fill in the essential or soft skills gap in the workforce.
ReplyDeleteDear Rochana,
DeleteThank you very much for your valuable in put on my blog. For your information, Soft Skills give Hard Skills the required softness to develop and keep up-to-date in changing environments. Soft Skills are closely related to flexible, balanced, explaining, abilities, elaborated in the prefrontal cortex, established by Man in the last 50.000 years. Hard Skills allow Man to be what he is: an engineer, a physicist, a philosopher. Soft Skills function in a direction that is rather distinct from the character of the individual and go beyond the strict demands of the profession (Grisi, 2014).
Dear Nishan, very well said, Steven and Campion (1999) created a scientific classification that depicts five measurements of delicate skills, communication, Problem-Solving, conflict resolution, Objective setting and arranging and task coordination. Meanwhile, according to the study conducted on financial victory conducted by the Carnegie Establishment of Advanced Teaching and afterward confirmed by the Carnegie organized of innovation, found that fifteen percent of a person’s financial victory is since of the information that he or she picked up and eighty-Five percent of his or her victory is since of abilities in “human Engineering” such as the individuals identity and capacity to lead individuals, that is soft skill (Carnegie, 1981). So that, it is clear that an individual should bridge the soft skill gaps to progress in any specific field.
ReplyDeleteDear Niroshini,
DeleteThank you very much for your valuable insights. It is important to understand which skills will be required in future. The work skills that will be required in 2020 (World Economic Forum, 2016) can be defined as the skills that should be developed by all citizens, in order to ensure their active representation in society and economy, taking into consideration the major drivers of change. Among them, the skills in using technology, in particular digital skills, will be fundamental in most jobs to perform many tasks (Cinque, 2015). Moreover, digital resources can support students to develop and train their Soft Skills, then they can be measured at the same time aims to be grasped and tools to train, to grow and increase capabilities and abilities.
Hi Nishan, a growing number of employers across industries are reporting that job applicants lack the basic skills needed to succeed in the workforce.Even when applicants make it past the interview process, employers are coping with new hires who are unsure of how to write a professional email, struggle to organize and prioritize tasks, or have a difficult time collaborating with coworkers. As TIME magazine notes, “the entry-level candidates who are on tap to join the ranks of full-time work are clueless about the fundamentals of office life.” Somewhere along the road from education to employment, the system is not routinely equipping all students with all the skills they need to succeed. While there are dozens of terms for this widely coveted category of skills, employers, educators, organizations, and policymakers are increasingly coalescing around “soft skills,” which commonly refer to the following: In contrast to hard skills or technical skills required for employment in specific sectors, such as technology or manufacturing, soft skills are valued by employers across sectors. An analysis by the career networking site LinkedIn found that the ability to communicate is most predictive of Linkedin members getting hired, followed by “organization, capacity for teamwork, punctuality, critical thinking, social savvy, creativity, and adaptability.” In short, soft skills pay off.
ReplyDelete• Teamwork & collaboration
• Leadership
• Problem solving & critical thinking
• Work ethic & persistence
• Organizational skills
• Creativity
• Interpersonal communication
• Relationship skills (e.g. conflict resolution)
“There is hard evidence,” says James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, “that you have to have soft skills in order to succeed.” For example, noncognitive skills such as “conscientiousness” (the tendency to be hardworking, organized, and responsible) predict
educational attainment and labor market outcomes as strongly as measures of cognitive ability.Moreover, Heckman cites evidence that soft skills can be learned and mastered by all students, regardless of personal attributes (e.g., individual motivations, goals, or preferences). As such, “programs that enhance soft skills have an important place.”
Hi Ricky,
DeleteLet me add something to your valuable comment. Soft Skills are a very hot topic these days for organizations because an outstanding CV not always corresponds to the real performance of the person once employed. According to Engelberg (2015), 11% of failures of new hired managers correspond to lack of technical competences (hard skills), while 89% are due to lack of Soft Skills, in order of importance: Coachability, Emotional Intelligence, Motivation and Personality. Another study carried on by McKinsey in April 2015 on 1,946 executives at different industries shows that just 26% of the organizational change programs to improve company performance are successful. These failures mainly depend on the executives’ Soft Skills (Cimatti, 2015).
Dear Nishan, adding more to your blog, technology has had a deep impact on skills that employers want from business graduates today (Mitchell, Skinner, & White, 2010). In history, technical skills, also known as hard skills, were the only skills essential for career employment. But today’s world, in organizations it is proven that technical skills are not sufficient to keep individuals employed when organizations are right-sizing and cutting positions (James & James, 2004). Because soft skills are important for fruitful performance in today’s workplace. Business leaders of current and future are highlighting the development of soft skills (Nealy, 2005). Tremendous research has been done on the importance of soft skills in organizations (Klaus, 2010; Maes, Weldy, & Icenogel, 1997; Mitchell et al., 2010; Nealy, 2005; Smith, 2007). A study found that 75% of long-term job success depends on people skills, while only 25% is dependent on technical knowledge (Klaus, 2010). Another study stated that hard skills contribute only 15% to one’s success, whereas 85% of success is owed by soft skills (Watts & Watts, 2008, as cited in John, 2009).
ReplyDeleteDear Nipuni,
DeleteThank you very much for your valuable feedback on importance of soft skills. As you are aware, during the last decades in many societies the view on soft skills has changed significantly. Whereas in the past the mastering of hard or technical skills was regarded first and soft skills were considered as “nice to have”, the perception has been turned upside down. Nowadays in general, people who are extroverted, who are good in branding and marketing themselves, and who are connecting and socializing easily are rated superior to others who lack those qualities. The good old technician such as engineers, an expert in his or her field, but being introverted and talking less than ten complete sentences a day is not appreciated any longer (Schulz, 2008).
Dear Nishan,
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting area to touch the improvement of the soft skills and its importance of the development of the people. When it comes to the negotiation skills it was understood that the communication is one of major area to have and it could be mainly impacted due to the soft skills of the people (Nealy, 2005). Therefore, the business required to understand the importance of the soft skills development of the people and managed to improve it in an appropriate manner.
Dear Asela,
DeleteAs you correctly said, communication is one of the most important soft skills. James and Lippe (2005) reported that job opportunities for millions of workers in the United States have been impacted by the constant growth of the Internet and new technologies. Jobs have been eradicated due to outsourcing, near sourcing, downsizing, plant closings, mergers and acquisitions, and other cost-cutting measures that businesses practice (Abbasi, Hollman,& Hays,2007). Jaderstrom and Schoenrock (2008) emphasized that clear, brief communication is vital for success in the global business context.
According to Davis and Brantley (2003), the ability to effectively communicate permeates every aspect of life and applies to all disciplines. Lehman and DuFrene (2008) defined communication as “the process of a common system of symbols, signs, and behavior. Other words used to describe the communication process include expressing feelings, conversing, speaking, corresponding, writing, listening, and exchanging” (p. 4). Davis and Brantley (2003) argued that essential basic communication skills comprise the ability to speak, signal, listen, write, and read. Furthermore, Lehman and DuFrene stated that attending meetings and discussions, reports writing, presentations, explaining and clarifying standards and procedures, coordinating the work of various employees, and promoting the company’s brand image are all defined as ways to communicate.
Hi Nishan, there are several arguments brought by some authors that skills influence the success of the organization.
ReplyDeleteIn the current competitive environment, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values are critical elements to meet the demands of the organization. In IT industry, graduates are expected to have just more than academic skills but to build and enhance their qualities, personal skills and experiences to ensure to compete in the labor market. According to surveys and analysis done, 93% of the employers in IT industry indicate that there’s a skills gap amongst the employees. Possible solutions to bridge the skills gap would be to determine the most important employable soft and hard skills as perceived by the industry partners, to determine if there are differences in the importance of various employable skills as perceived by the industry partners and to recommend possible solutions to bridge the skill gap (Tablatin et al., 2017). Managerial skills have become the most deciding factor of organization’s success or failure. Effective decision making, problem solving, choose the optimum and appropriate direction and clear understanding of the skills required to perform assigned responsibilities are the essential skills of a manager. Lack of having these skills would lead to inability to perform and deliver the job at the optimum level, communication gaps and failed coordination would negatively impact on overall performance of the Organization (Tewari and Sharma, 2014).
Dear Nilmini,
DeleteThank you very much for your valuable comment on soft skills .For your information, studies over the years continually showed that business communication is a skill required for business graduates. Rader and Wunsch (1980) surveyed recent business graduates to determine qualifications that they considered significant for success in the workplace. Ninety percent of the graduates recognized oral and written communication skills as important skills for the employees. Recent studies produced similar outcomes. In a 2003 study of employers, 94% of the respondents listed oral communication skills and 89% listed written communication skills as vital skills for employees (Hoggatt, 2003). Moss (1995) found that “High-level communication skills are crucial! Recently, we have seen college graduates trying to perform routine work but lacking various grammar and clarity skills. Please raise standards and professional levels” (p. 70). In a study of recent college graduates conducted by James and Lippe (2005) business communication skills are regarded as essential or important. Sutton (2002) affirmed and stated: “right now if you have two candidates, both technically sound – even if one person is ahead in technical skills – the person with the better communication skills will get the job” (p. 20).
Hi Nishan. A number of studies on soft skills have followed the new policy initiative (Devadason et al. 2010; Salih 2008; Shakir 2009). Salih (2008) has linked the introduction of soft skills policy with promoting education for sustainable development. She argued that incorporating soft skills development into university curricula would contribute to the formation of “a holistic human capital, who can think of a future in which environment, societal and economic considerations are balanced in the pursuit of development” (Salih 2008, p. 1). Shakir (2009) conducted an overview of the MOHE (2006) list of soft skills and discussed the ways to incorporate these skills. She also stressed the need to make the employees realize that having well-developed soft skills would help them to compete successfully in a “world without boundaries” (Shakir 2009, p. 314).
ReplyDeleteDear Prashanth,
DeleteTeaching and training Soft Skills is a essential educational activity that must start very early at primary school, then it is not an question only regarding Universities and corporates. Furthermore, the development of Soft Skills starts within the family, then even prior than the time when the kid goes to School. It is very hard to predict what the employment (job) world will be in future, only short-term guess can have sense. Academic programmes should try to consider possible future situations in order to enlighten young people to find a job opportunities, but this is not easy to do, as the future is often unpredictable (Hautamäki, 2015). But Soft Skills are not only required to work or job, they are critical for everyday life, Educational sector must focus on methods and techniques to help students grow transversal capabilities that will be useful for them in any condition. A recent report “Skills for social progress” produced by OECD (Organization for Economic Corporation and Development), emphasized the need to grow a “whole child” with a balanced set of intellectual, social and emotional skills in order to better face the challenges of the 21st century. As “skills beget skills”, early interventions in social and emotional skills can play an vital role in efficiently growing skills and reducing educational, labour market and social differences (Cinque, 2015).