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Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective 7

Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective

Deepa S* and Manisha Seth**

Soft skills are very critical in the workplace today. These skills mirror the ability to communicate and interact with others. They are unique because they emphasize on action. They have become indispensable for every person in the present context. This paper deals with the significance of soft skills for getting a job and for further promotions and progress in the workplace. People who are flexible and have the zeal to understand and learn new technologies are sought after by organizations as part of their growth process. The need to provide training in soft skills is seriously being considered today. This study is an attempt to find out the importance that middle to top level executives, who are involved in recruiting employees, attach to soft skills.

* Assistant Professor, Managerial Communication, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Kerala, India; and is the corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

** Assistant Professor, Human Resource Management, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction Organizations today have transformed into places where people cannot function in seclusion. Teamwork or group work is the need of the day in most industries. There are many organizations that do not necessarily design jobs on the basis of a team. Nonetheless, they require a fair amount of interaction between people within and across functional realms to successfully carry out a piece of work. The opportune discoveries made through the Hawthorne studies are now accepted as basic and universal principles of life in any organization. In this setting, soft skills have become indispensable to function competently in any interpersonal relationship.

‘Soft skills’ is an umbrella term covering various survival skills such as communication and interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, leadership qualities, team skills, negotiation skills, time and stress management and business etiquettes. In recent years, the corporate world felt that soft skills are crucial at the workplace and its training must be a part of the curriculum during education. In career terms, soft skills soften the edges and provide a competitive advantage over others. However, those who ignore this critical aspect of personality learn its importance the hard way when their promotion is overlooked.

The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. VII, No. 1, 20138

Soft skills are “attitudes and behaviors displayed in interactions among individuals that affect the outcomes of various interpersonal encounters” (Muir, 2004). These are skills that refer to the ability to communicate and interact with other employees in a positive manner.

Soft skills are necessary in the workplace for professional success. They are vital at every level of an organization if it is to function smoothly and productively. Hard skills are technical competencies and domain knowledge, while soft skills are a combination of people skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills and emotional intelligence. Companies search for a mélange of both soft and hard skills among their employees to deliver goods and services effectively to their clients. It is rightly said that people rise in organizations because of their hard skills and fall due to a shortage of soft skills.

Kelly Pierce points out in “eSight Trend Watch: Increased Value in Soft Skills,” that “There is a growing recognition that interpersonal skills are not simply helpful in business today; they are essential in today’s highly focused, downsized and streamlined organizations where people tend to work in a series of small, often temporary workgroups or teams organized to accomplish short-term objectives.” He lists such qualities as “attitude, initiative, cooperation, teamwork, communication, perception” among the skills that are valued in the contemporary workplace.

Soft skills deal with these behavioral aspects relevant in personal and corporate life. Today, we find employers taking hard skills as a given or as the basic requirement and the soft skills ‘including communicating, relationship building, work ethic and problem solving’ (Johnson, 2006), as an important consideration in deciding upon the choice of a candidate for any job.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the prospective employers’ perception about importance of soft skills while hiring MBAs and provide information that may be utilized by educators to enhance the soft skills of students entering the workforce.

Literature Review Rainsbury et al. (2002) categorized the competencies of superior managers identified by Spencer and Spencer (1993) as hard skills or soft skills. Only three of the 20 competencies were classified as hard skills, while the remaining 17 were organized as soft skills. The categories of soft skills, include achievement and action, impact and influence, managerial (team management and developing others), and personal effectiveness.

The last few years have witnessed a growing awareness and a need to identify the intangible factors which play a very important role in an individual’s success at the workplace. Varied studies have been done in the past related to such areas. Many experts have in the past worked on and concluded that these extra skills which help to attain

Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective 9

success at the workplace are certainly precious. Jacobs and Marshall discussed the importance of the definite class of skills that allow value additions to a person’s worth. Though none of them uses the term, they actually deem it to be soft skill.

For decades, the center of management was on the so-called ‘hard’ skills, i.e., the emphasis centered on technical skills imperative to effectively perform within the organization. These skills tended to be more job-specific or more closely related to the actual task being performed.

Today, employers look for managers with the vital soft skills. These skills tend to be more generic in nature. In other words, these are skills strategic to effective performance across all job categories. And these soft skills have come to play an even more central role in management positions in today’s setting. As the world has changed and the nature of work has changed, the skill set required for managers has also undergone a change.

Studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation among Fortune 500 CEOs found that 75% of long-term job success depended on people skills and only 25% on technical skills. In fact, this stands true at other levels as well. For effective performance in the workplace, companies need their employees to not only have domain knowledge, technical and analytical skills, but also skills to deal with the external world of clients, customers, vendors, the government and public, and to work in a collaborative manner with their colleagues.

The annual rankings of MBA colleges often place communication and interpersonal skills as the most decisive skills needed for success in the corporate world.

Distinguished academician Prof. Henry Mintzberg, while speaking on the importance of soft skills for MBAs, referred to the crucial ‘soft skills’—leadership, teamwork, communication and the ability to think ‘outside the box’ of a discipline—that separate the rest in the management world.

In a poll on Melcrum’s Black Belt Training website, the skill that was voted the most vital for internal communicators to master in order to carry out their roles with utmost efficacy was building effective relationships.

Other surveys and studies also show that employers are often more concerned about soft skills or attitudes rather than technical knowledge or competencies. Empirical studies of work find that employers and workers also feel generic skills, such as problem solving, communications and the ability to work in teams, are more significant for workplace success. Another study on developing soft skills in vocation high school graduates talks about the importance of developing soft skills in students for their betterment and future career growth.

A 2007 study of recruiters found that communication skills are the most desired characteristics needed in a candidate for an ideal job.

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According to a survey by Harvard University, 80% achievements in career are determined by soft skills and only 20% by hard skills. In the book, Lesson from the Top by Neff and Citrin, the duo talk about 10 top success tips, out of which eight are concerned with soft skills and only two criteria talk about hard skills.

Similarly, a literature review undertaken by researchers to understand best practices revealed that soft skills are given much importance by the employers worldwide. Luthans et al. (1985 and 1998), on the basis of their study conducted on more than 450 managers, ascertained that the average managers spend most of their time in traditional management activities, whereas in the case of managers who were successful (defined in terms of speed of promotion within their organization), networking skills made the largest contribution to their success. In the case of effective managers (defined in terms of the quantity and quality of their performance and the satisfaction and commitment of their subordinates and coworkers), communication skills made the largest contribution.

A literature review undertaken by researchers to understand best practices made known that soft skills are given much importance by the employers universally. According to them, it was found that in IT companies, projects failed not due to the lack of technical skills but due to the lack of interpersonal and communication skills. Bill (2004) showed that communication skills, self-esteem and work ethics are the main factors that determine one’s achievement in his/her work. Several other works, especially on customer-focused services, have shown that customer-focused soft skills can make a big contribution to profitability even in industries regarded as highly technical. To achieve success in today’s job market, employees need a combination of occupation- specific hard skills and soft skills.

According to Duncan and Dunifon (1998), “soft skills are as good a predictor of labor market success as level of formal education”. Similarly, commenting on the need for high school students to develop such skills, experts have agreed on several hard skills. And over and above that, the two most important soft skills are the ability to communicate effectively and the ability to work productively with people from different backgrounds. Thus, the review of literature shows that there is a need for other types of skills than the routine hard skills to succeed in the work place, but none has completely and satisfactorily understood the skill requirements; and there is limited research done to generate specific guidance that is useful to educators and students.

According to Harvey and Knight (1996), “employers are not looking for trainees but people equipped to learn and deal with change. Employers want graduates who are adaptable and flexible, who can communicate well and relate to a wide range of people, who are aware of, but not indoctrinated into, the world of work and the culture of organizations, and who, most importantly, have inquiring minds, are willing and quick to learn, are critical, can synthesize and are innovative.”

Contrary to the popular belief, soft skills do make a difference in the business world (Workforce, 1999). Even though managers still need typical techniques taught in MBA

Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective 11

programs, they need additional tools to be effective. Today’s managers need a variety of soft skills in communication, negotiation, and team building to effectively manage technological change and corporate stress resulting from downsizing and rapid growth (Deverell, 1994). Another study conducted by Caudrin (1999) revealed that while hiring MBAs, corporations seek the three most desired capabilities—communication skills, interpersonal skills and initiative—all of which are elements of emotional intelligence.

For a long time, recruitment and selection processes concentrated on finding people with the right technical or domain expertise. The focus was on the so-called hard skills. So, the requirements normally spelt out the area and the technical expertise required for a job. The person-job fit was measured typically on the basis of these qualifications. Later, employers realized that while the core skills are present, successful interpersonal relationships played a major role in achieving results. The success of a department or an organization depended on domain knowledge and also as much, if not more, on the ability of a group of individuals to work in a team and optimize their individual resources.

The 21st century workforce has experienced tremendous changes due to advances in technology; consequently, the ‘old way’ of doing things may be effective but not efficient (Redmann and Kotrlik, 2004). The National Business Education Association (NBEA) stated that the shortage of skills confronting today’s dynamic workforce goes beyond the academic and hands-on occupational skills. Therefore, the best way to prepare potential employees for tomorrow’s workforce is to develop not only technical, but also human-relation abilities (Policies Commission for Business and Economic Education (PCBEE), 2000).

Defining ‘soft skills’, Perreault (2004) stated that these are personal qualities, attributes, or the level of commitment of a person that set him or her apart from other individuals who may have similar skills and experience. According to James and James (2004), ‘soft skills’ is a new way to describe a set of abilities or talents that an individual can bring to the workplace. Soft skills characterize certain career attributes that individuals may possess such as team skills, communication skills, leadership skills, customer service skills and problem solving skills. “Employers Value Communication and Interpersonal Abilities” (2004) suggests that one who communicates effectively, gets along with others, embraces teamwork, takes initiative, and has strong work ethics is considered to have an accomplished a set of soft skills. Sutton (2002) found that soft skills are so important that employers identify them as ‘the number one differentiator’ for job applicants in all types of industries (p. 40). According to Sutton, soft skills have become extremely important in all types of occupations. Glenn (2008) added that hiring individuals who possess soft skills is instrumental for high-performing organizations to retain a competitive edge. Wilhelm (2004) agreed and claimed that employers rate soft skills highest in importance for entry-level success in the workplace.

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Literature supports the conclusion that proficiency in soft skills is extremely important from employers’ perspective. However, many employees in business are reported to be lacking in soft skills. Also, literature revealed that research is needed in the area of soft skills so that enhanced instructional methodology may be developed and applied by business educators.

The paradigm shift in the 21st century workforce has forced employees to be well armed with soft skills (Ganzel, 2001). James and James (2004) confirmed that soft skills have become extremely crucial even in technical environments. This endorses the view of Evenson (1999) who believed that equipping students with soft skills could make the difference in obtaining and retaining the jobs for which they have been prepared.

The NBEA believes that skills emphasized in the 20th century must be refocused. To ensure success, students entering the 21st century workforce must possess non- technical soft skills along with technical competence (PCBEE, 2000). A complex labor market has been generated due to the multifaceted 21st century business world; therefore, organizations are seeking versatile individuals, who possess professional skills, even for entry-level jobs (Employers Value Communication and Interpersonal Abilities, 2004). According to Christopher (2006), employers want graduates with strong interpersonal abilities. Quite a lot of researchers (Sutton, 2002; Glenn, 2003; NBEA, 2004; and Wilhelm, 2004) substantiated that mastery of soft skills is instrumental to success for individuals entering the 21st century workforce.

With time, companies aren’t just assessing their current staff and future recruits on their business skills. They are now evaluating them on a multitude of soft skills like how well they relate to and communicate with others. It is a bit shocking and somewhat disturbing when someone exhibits the old autocratic style of bullying management tactics.

Measuring these soft skills is not easy. But in the most progressive companies, managers are looking for people’s ability to communicate clearly and openly, and to listen and respond empathetically. They also want them to have equally well-honed written skills so that their correspondence (including e-mails) does not undo all the good work their face-to-face communication creates.

A few companies are untouched by the ever-widening authority of other cultures and good soft skills ease better communication and people’s ability to manage differences efficiently. Already everyone has some form of soft skills (probably a lot more than they realize). They just need to look at areas in their personal life where they get on with others, feel confident in the way they interact, can solve problems, are good at encouraging, can network with the best of them. All these skills are soft skills and all of them are transferable to the workplace.

It is unfortunate that people lightly esteem the significance of soft skills. In fact, the concept of soft skills is a developing ambit that people must take seriously; people have

Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective 13

to be educated about them. Whenever a new discipline surfaces, people resist and mostly do not respect it because there is no strong research to substantiate its relevance. However, over a period of time people start accepting and respecting the discipline. For example, there were many people who initially did not take management as a discipline seriously and expressed their reservations. Today, management as a discipline is a reality, having a sacred and respectable position like many other disciplines in the world. Similarly, soft skills will evolve as a discipline during the course of time when more research is done. It is often difficult to quantify soft skills (unlike hard skills), but soft skills are both intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies that determine a person’s ability to gel well with others and excel in the corporate world (Rao, 2012).

Research Methodology Data regarding the views of employers and managers involved in interviewing and recruiting people and their expectations from new recruits was collected with the help of a questionnaire (Appendix), comprising questions on how much importance is being given to soft skills while recruiting new persons or experienced persons. The respondents were asked to rate the seven broad categories of skills included in ‘soft skills’ and the typical soft skills they look for when recruiting. About 160 mid-level to top level executives from about 4-5 sectors located in Delhi, Noida, Nasik, Lucknow, Indore and Mumbai were sent questionnaires. 135 responses were received, out of which 100 were found complete in all respects. Finally, the data collected through the questionnaire was analyzed and the results were compared to the previously held beliefs and theories. Telephonic discussions with some recruiters also provided insights into their perception of soft skills.

Findings and Analysis The findings were generally on expected lines, with 86% respondents agreeing that soft skills are indeed very important to succeed at the work place (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Are Soft Skills Important at the Workplace?

3% 11%

86% Yes No Can’t Say

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But when asked about the quality of new entrants entering the workforce today, 60% said that the new entrants do not possess the necessary soft skills to succeed at the workplace. And an overwhelming majority, that is 82% respondents, agreed that there were gaps between the industry requirements and the products churned out by the colleges and universities of today. On the question whether they thought that the new entrants can acquire soft skills on joining a good organization, 50% felt that they would. And 85% strongly felt that adding soft skills in college curricula will improve the quality of the workforce.

When asked what ratio they would offer to soft skills and work experience while recruiting, 68% of the respondents stated 60:40 if it is an entry level job, 50:50 if it is a mid level management position and 60:40 in case of a higher management position.

The respondents were also asked to divide a percentage score of 100 among the six must-have soft skills to succeed at the workplace. The results showed that communication skills received the maximum weightage of 22%, while interpersonal skills followed a close second with 20%, teamwork and leadership qualities received 16% and 15%, respectively, time management got 13%, while conflict management received 14% weightage (Figure 2).

While expressing his thoughts on how much importance is attached to soft skills while recruiting candidates for entry level jobs in Management, Himojyoti Sengupta, Human Resources – North, Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd., opines, “The said skill set is very much important for an entry level position but it is hard to find. The same gives

Figure 2: Must-Have Soft Skills to Succeed at the Workplace

Communication Skills Interpersonal Skills Teamwork

Leadership Qualities Time Management Conflict Management

22%

20%

16%

15%

13%

14%

Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective 15

an edge over other candidates.” When asked whether the organization got the candidates with required soft skills, he stated that they needed to provide the necessary training.

In this regard, Khyati Seth, Assistant Manager – HR, Abhitech IT Solutions Private Limited states, “Soft skills are a very important aspect considered while selecting a candidate, especially for the freshers. As observed, the quality of the candidates is deteriorating day by day, they lack basic skills like communication and social behavior”. She further says, “We do not get candidates with the required set of soft skills. Also, the time and resources involved in the training of the candidates are very high”.

Mohit Kumar, AVP – HR, Aditya Birla Group said, “We hire candidates from management institutes under Young Leaders’ program. We have a competency framework in our organization. We believe that soft skills like communication, influencing, teamwork, getting things done, developing self and others are very important for people to successfully perform and excel in the various roles in the organization. Proficiency levels for these competencies for various roles in job hierarchy are very much defined, including that for entry level roles. We look forward to people demonstrating these competencies appropriately while we make a hiring decision.” He added, “We get the candidates with required soft skills. Training is a continuous process and it is equally important for people having these competencies to further hone their skills to the next level.”

Tanmay Panda, Head HR, National Payment Corporation of India, said that soft skills are indeed very important while recruiting candidates for entry level jobs in management. He added that they are generally required to train the employees in the crucial soft skills.

Nidhi Bhatnagar, Human Resources, Fidelity Info Services, while expressing her views on the importance of soft skills in recruiting stated, “It is always important to be really good at soft skills. However, the weightage of this parameter actually depends on the role that one is appearing for. For instance if one has appeared for a HR job, soft skills will be given high weightage along with the other prerequisites, lack of soft skills might even result in elimination/rejection, since a HR professional needs to cater to the aspirations and emotions of human capital, it is important that one has excellent soft skills. On the other hand, if one applies for a sales job, soft skills need to be modified in a way where the person is able to crack a deal, the conviction required over there will be slightly different, the weightage of soft skills parameter might differ/might be less as well, however it will carry its due importance”.

On probing whether they got candidates with the required soft skills or they needed to train them, Nidhi Bhatnagar said, “We cannot expect excellent soft skills in candidates applying for entry level jobs, as it will be quite unfair to them since they do not hold a practical exposure to the corporate world. We certainly believe in training the candidate in case we feel that he/she has all the prerequisites for the role and needs slight polishing on soft skills. We too would not want to lose such good resources,

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yes; they need to have that aptitude and attitude to learn which paves way for us to make them shine as any other seasoned employees. Training them on soft skills is something which is always an option as that is a very softer aspect which can be evolved in a person to bring about that desired change in one’s personality, both professionally and personally.”

Conclusion Recruitment managers respect and expect technical expertise. Results show that they do prefer people with experience, but at the same time, they also look for certain other qualities in them. However, technical or the so-called hard skills soon become outdated when there is no motivation to keep learning new ones. So, they also look for people who are flexible and have the passion to appreciate and learn new technologies as part of their growth process. And as Beck and Yaeger pointed out, “The ability to effectively communicate with the managers, superiors, bosses and coworkers plays a definite role in workplace success.” Furthermore, “the interpersonal skills, alignment with the corporate culture, the ability to work as an effective and contributing team member and the political savvy to know how to get things done in the organization” also determine a person’s long-term success in an organization. Therefore, our results have shown that in generic terms, hiring managers are not happy with the new workforce coming out of the colleges and they do think that they should be much better equipped with soft skills in addition to hard skills. On the basis of these results, we have made an attempt to provide to the educators a guideline to design the soft skills course curriculum in such a way so as to bridge the gap that exists between the existing one and the industry expectations. The results also pointed out that the basic skills should include good communication style along with the ability to work in teams and ability to get things done on time as well as manage conflicts tactfully.

This study may be quite useful to business educators because the findings reported help to recognize the most important workforce skills. In addition, this information may allow educators to more effectively include employability skills in their courses.

Scope for Further Research: This study was basically a preliminary (probing) research to tap into the minds of recruiters across Indian companies and find out the importance of soft skills in their scheme of things, particularly the recruitment process. Although an attempt was made to take samples from across India from the banking, insurance, automobile, real estate and retail sectors, there is a lot of scope for further research. All these companies have a more urgent need for employees having better soft skills. Research can be extended to these as well as other sectors like hospitality and aviation, to further look into the difference these skills would make to their career graph. Besides, it would be interesting to know how the educators feel about the industry requirement of teaching soft skills at the college/b-school level. The desire to raise academic performance and, at the same time, provide opportunities for students to be successful at the workplace creates sizeable challenges for educators. And expanding the curriculum to meet the new skill

Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective 17

demands raises several questions such as: What should be the college and university curriculum that can inculcate problem solving, teamwork, interpersonal and communication skills in students? Further research in this area could provide exciting ideas to bridge the existing gap between education curricula and industry demands.

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Do Soft Skills Matter? – Implications for Educators Based on Recruiters’ Perspective 19

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Name (Optional): Mr./Ms.: ------------------------------------

Designation: -------------------------------------

Organization: -------------------------------------

Location:- --------------------------------------

Gender: --------------------------------------

Age Group (Years): 20-30 30-40 40-50 >50

Mark your perception on the following statements where 1 – Strongly Agree, 3 – Neutral and 5 – Strongly Disagree

Appendix

Questionnaire

1 2 3 4 5 S.

No. Statements

1. Soft skills are crucial to achieve success at the workplace.

2. Soft skills are important criteria when interviewing job applicants.

3. Soft skills are more important than experience in similar position.

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Reference # 50J-2013-03-01-01

Appendix (Cont.)

Questionnaire

1 2 3 4 5 S.

No. Statements

4. New entrants/joiners possess the required soft skills to be successful at the workplace.

5. There is a gap between the industry requirements and the products of the colleges today.

6. Recruiters are satisfied with the current workforce available for their industry/sector.

7. Soft skills can be acquired even after joining a good company or an organization.

8. Adding soft skills in the college curricula will provide better equipped personnel.

What ratio would you offer to Soft skills and work experience?

S. No. Statements 40:60 50:50 60:40

1. For considering lower level management positions

2. For considering middle level management positions

3. For considering higher management positions

Rate the following soft skills in order of their importance (1-6) with 1 being the topmost essential skill and 6 the least essential that a new job applicant/fresher must possess to join an organization:

S. No. Soft Skill Order

1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Team Work

2. Conflict Management

3. Communication Skills

4. Time Management

5. Interpersonal Skills

6. Leadership Qualities

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