But employers interpret this as a ‘failure to understand work culture’
Soft skills in the workplace at vital to commercial success, according to 93 per cent of employers but graduates do not agree with 51 per cent viewing them as a barrier to getting work done, research has found.
The Hay Group survey, with 150 new graduates and 150 graduate recruiters and L&D professionals, showed that graduates overlook the importance of soft skills, including self-awareness, self-management, empathy, listening, teamwork and understanding others’ concerns.
And when questioned further about how this would affect their career progression, 70 per cent said they believed they just needed to be good at their job to succeed.
“At university, recent graduates will have been focussed on, and rewarded for, their academic expertise and knowledge, not necessarily developing people skills,” explained Melody Moore, consultant at Hay Group.
“If they haven’t had the chance to gain work experience, they may not yet understand this aspect of work culture.”
More than three-quarters (77 per cent) of those involved in graduates recruitment and development who were surveyed said they believed university leavers were ill-prepared for the working world.
This echoes the findings of previous studies on the issue. In a 2014 study by the British Chamber of Commerce, 54 per cent of businesses said they thought graduates were unprepared for employment and 57 per cent said young people lacked the basic soft skills they needed to succeed in the workplace.
And, in the CIPD’s 2013 Resourcing and Talent Planning report, just 13 per cent of respondents said educational institutions provided younger workers with the skills their organisation needed to a great or very great extent and 5 per cent said schools, colleges and universities failed to deliver these skills at all.
The Hay group study also revealed that many of those with graduate recruitment and development responsibilities are concerned about the future, with an overwhelming majority (91 per cent) saying graduates who neglected to develop good people skills would be ineffective as leaders and 77 per cent saying that, based on the people skills of the graduates they had recruited, they were concerned about their organisation’s future leadership.
Annie Peate, policy campaigns officer at the CIPD, said: “Young people need to make sure that they’re developing the soft skills they have and that they grasp every opportunity to do so. But that of course involves employers offering opportunities to people to, for example, going into workplaces for work experience.”