‘Soft skills’ for workplaces the new frontier
Having impressive cognitive skills is good, but non-cognitive skills are a must-have to be considered in the workplace.
In the past, cognitive skills have always been profoundly important when job-hunting; however, with the new age this need is slowly fading away.
Employers now want innovation from someone who is a versatile and skilled non-cognitive person. Though some recruiters still use the old method of going through the academic record of their applicants and picking according to the best qualification, most of them now use the new system of inviting applicants to take assessment and numeracy tests that best suit the company’s criteria, and decide who makes the cut according to the results.
A survey done by the Hamilton Project (an economic research group) has proved that less than 20 per cent of recruitment personnel said that recent graduates have insufficient mathematics skills for the workplace, while more than 50 per cent said that recent graduates need attention to detail.
According to Eyewitness News, the universal accountancy firm Ernst & Young said in 2015 that they were going to use their in-house assessment programme and numeracy tests in future recruitments.
“We are modernising the workplace, challenging traditional thinking and ways of doing things. Transforming our recruitment process opens up opportunities for talented individuals regardless of their background, and provides greater access to the profession,” the company said.
Duties such as social skills have developed by 16 per cent, while tasks that necessitate outstanding mathematics skills have only developed by five per cent. It is evident that duties that include working with people need better non-cognitive skills and are more notable nowadays than they were in the 1990s.
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