Introduction
Employability skills, commonly referred to as soft skills refer to a set of transferable skills and key personal attributes that are most employers value highly and consider essential for effective performance at a workplace. Employability skills, unlike professional/technical skills, are generic in nature, meaning they are applicable to all work roles regardless of the industry. It is through this soft skills that employees are able to get along with their colleagues, make critical decagons, solve work-related issues, develop respect and become strong ambassadors at their workplaces. Acquiring staff who lack the necessary employability skills hampers the growth of a business. Common employability skills include Proper communication, leadership, dependability, initiative, and motivation, Emotional control, patience, following instructions and resilience. This annotated will look into different articles regarding employability skills, describe the intent of the articles and evaluate their importance to the Arizona State legislature.
Robles, M. M. (2012). Executive Perceptions of the Top 10 Soft Skills Needed in Today’s Workplace. Business Communication Quarterly , 75 (4), 453-465. Doi: 10.1177/1080569912460400
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The articles’ main focus is on identifying the soft skills required from employers by employees to encourage business educators to promote these skills in the curriculum, therefore, improving the employability of graduating business seniors. Robles (2012), differentiates soft skills from hard skills and states that in today’s world, soft skills play a critical role in enhancing productive performance. To identify the skills required, students were asked to interview two executives each semester, and after this, they issued an evaluation survey where the executives were asked among many questions, the ten soft skills they wanted new employees to possess. A list of 517 skills was created and from this list, the ten most mentioned skills from the executives were included in a questionnaire to be rated by importance. These questionnaires were issued to the executives and from their answers, the soft skills identified per their importance were communication, courtesy, flexibility, integrity, interpersonal skills, positive attitude, professionalism, responsibility, teamwork and work ethic.
Since soft skills are essential for recruitment purpose, this articles helps identify the key employability skills required from employees. Employers can use the skills provided as a basis for evaluating candidates. This article is important as it helps employers understand each of the soft skills mentioned and why they are crucial for business productivity. Marcell’s research showed that just like traditional work skills (hard skills) soft skills are also a good indicator of job performance. This, however, does not mean that employers should completely ignore hard skills during recruitment, they are also important and should complement each other.
S, D., & Seth, M. (2013). Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective. IUP Journal of Soft Skills , 7 (1).
In this article, Deepa and Manisha, the authors provided answers to the question of whether soft skills mattered from a recruiter’s perspective. The paper focuses on the significance of soft skills from getting a job and for further promotion at a workplace. By looking into different literature, the article was able to identify what skills employers look for in their employees and soft skills topped the list. Empirical studies showed that employers feel that generic skills played a major role in ensuring workplace success (S&Seth, 2013). Managers do respect technical expertise, the results showed that as much as managers prefer people with technical expertise, they also looking for other qualities in them. They require people who are flexible and passionate to learn new technologies as hard skills become outdated. The ability of an individual to communicate effectively with their fellow colleagues, align with the corporate culture, work effectively and be a contributing member to the workplace is highly dependent on the soft skills they possess.
This is study is especially important for the staff and decision makers of the Arizona State Legislature because it shows the most important workforce skills and allows business educators to more effectively include employability skills in their curriculum. Employees are also able to identify why they need soft skills, and through self-assessments, they can identify the soft skills they lack and focus on developing them. For ‘freshers’ or newly hired employees, soft skills play a major role in ensuring that they keep and progress at their jobs since they may lack the required experience.
Rao, M. S. (2012). Myths and Truths about soft skills. T+D , 48-51 .
There are many myths that surround soft skills at work, the articles’ main focus is on demystifying the myths and truths surrounding soft skills. The authors identify how changes have occurred in the Learning and Development function where gone are the days when technical skills were the only skills that sectors underscored. Companies are moving towards identifying and promoting soft skills not only in their recruitment but also in their current staff. There are however many myths surrounding soft skills, this include:
- Soft skills are inborn qualities
- Soft skills are closely connected to the English Language
- Soft skills are synonymous with communication skills
- Soft skills alone help ensure professional success and career advancement
- Emotional intelligence alone encompasses soft skills
- Soft skills are interpersonal skills
- Women have better soft skills and men have better hard skills
- Soft skills are not transferable
By digging deep into these myths, the article is able to provide clarity on soft skills and explain the importance of soft skills, especially in the 21 st century.
This article is essential for the provision of clarity regarding ay myth that people may have regarding soft skills.Fr a long time companies and individuals have looked down on soft skills and prioritized on hard skills. This article shows the changes in learning and development explaining why the focus has to be paid on this skills. To ensure that the issue of employability skills is fully covered, it is necessary to address the myths surrounding it, and this article makes it easier to do so.
Schramm, J. (2013). Skills Gap Holds Back Some Grads. HR Magazine , 104.
Despite college graduates processing the required technical skills, they still get a hard time gaining employment. In this article, Jennifer’s focus was on why human resource report that there is a skill mismatch between applicants and the available positions. A survey conducted on 468 HR professionals revealed that lack of current openings ad lack of key skills hindered the hiring of college grads. The HR professionals stated that college graduates lack basic writing and speaking skills. Finding a college graduate with the right business acumen and written communication skills is hard. The author goes deeper into shortages of qualified skills in specific areas e.g. engineering and how these shortages have not led to an increase in wages for graduates. As more people continue to quit their jobs, the chances for college graduates to get jobs are higher but fresh t the concerns by HR for skills shortages could only get worse.
This article mainly focused on college graduates and how their lack of specific skills may deter Human Resource from hiring them. The major skills being in writing and speaking which are part of soft skills. This article is an eye-opener for any fresh graduate who is job seeking. For the Arizona State Legislature-Chamber of Commerce staff, the article may not be very useful since most of them already have jobs, but it may be useful for any fresh graduates who may be interested in joining the Arizona State Legislature In the future.
Claxton, G., Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2016). Hard Thinking about Soft Skills. Educational Leadership , 60-64.
The articles look at how most people refer to soft skills, words such as social-emotional learning, grit, mindsets, character strengths, habits of mind and habits of heart all are mentioned relating to skills. The author breaks down the meaning of soft, skills and non-cognitive. Skills are used to refer to outcomes of being inquisitive or persistent I the face of difficulties. Skills, in this case, remind us that there is more to life than being able to quickly call out facts or checking the correct box in a test. Skills are considered as procedures that someone can be trained, However, developing someone to gain skill such as self-evaluation or curiosity requires specific training allowing the student to develop thinking skills through encouragement and guidance. Soft, on the other hand, is contrasted to hard, it implies subjective or warm and fuzzy. Cognitive suggests that cognition has been well defined and understood while everything else falls back into a dark zone.
This article creates a deeper understanding of the words soft, skill and non-cognitive. By understanding this, people are able to differentiate the soft skills from hard skills easily. It is important for the staff members as they get a breakdown of this skills and understand that they are cognitively demanding just like any other technical skill. When people are able to adapt and learn the soft skills, then positive interactions and practices as well develop. When people understand how to utilize soft skills, then a shared vision is developed and there is nothing soft about this.
Davies, A., Fidler, D., & Gorbis, M. (2011). Future Work Skills 2020. Institute for the Future for University of Phoenix Research Institute , 1-13.
This report mentions and analyses the key drivers that shapes peoples thoughts on work including what constitutes of work. It also identifies the key work skills required by an individual in the next ten years. This is without considering what their jobs might be in the future. The focus of this report is on the future work skills-proficiencies and abilities required across different jobs and work settings. The drivers that impact the future landscape of work include extreme longevity, the rise of smart machines and systems, computational world, new media ecology, super structured organizations and a globally connected world/This six drivers bring forth the key skills that will be needed I the future workforce. The skills include sense-making, social intelligence, Transdisciplinary, novel and adaptive thinking, virtual collaboration, design mindset, cognitive load management, new media literacy, and computational thinking. The article also states that it is essential for businesses to be aware of the changing environment to develop strategies to ensure their workforce is in line with the future skills requirement.
The six drivers mentioned by the author result to key work skills that may be needed by employees in the future. This is as a result of the business world constantly evolving and changing. This article is very essential as it shows what employability skills are needed in the future and how the business world is slowly changing from focusing on technical skills to soft skills. It will enable the staff to identify the areas they need improvement for the purpose of work growth.
Conclusion
In the previous years, employers, as well as employees, have placed their focus on technical skills while ignoring the importance of soft skills. Many people assume that experience and expertise create a good job candidate, but from the research done soft skills are slowly taking over the hard skills. As the business world evolves, human resource has brought into light the essence of soft skills in business productivity and growth. Soft skills are generic therefore they can be applied in any job role or position. Research has also shown that where expertise or experience is not available, employers focus’ on individual soft skills as from this they can gather their interpersonal skills, leadership skills, communication skills, decision making, emotional intelligence, motivation etc.
References
Claxton, G., Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2016). Hard Thinking about Soft Skills. Educational Leadership , 60-64.
Davies, A., Fidler, D., & Gorbis, M. (2011). Future Work Skills 2020. Institute for the Future for University of Phoenix Research Institute , 1-13.
Rao, M. S. (2012). Myths and Truths about soft skills. T+D , 48-51.
Robles, M. M. (2012). Executive Perceptions of the Top 10 Soft Skills Needed in Today’s Workplace. Business Communication Quarterly , 75 (4), 453-465. doi:10.1177/1080569912460400
Schramm, J. (2013). Skills Gap Holds Back Some Grads. HR Magazine , 104.
S, D., & Seth, M. (2013). Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective. IUP Journal of Soft Skills , 7 (1).
