Group: 4B. MANG1017: Key Skills for Business Assignment 1: Group Project Word Count: 2693 Group ID: 4B Students:

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1 MANG1017: Key Skills for Business Assignment 1: Group Project Word Count: 2693 Group ID: 4B Students:

2 Contents Definition of the Terms Used Page 3 What skills, attitudes and behaviours do Management Consultants look for in prospective graduates? Page 5 Student Inquiry Project Page 7 How to Secure the Best Graduate Job Page 11 Recommendations to the Co-Design Group Page 13 References Page 15 Appendices Page 17 2

3 Definition of the Terms Used In order to look at which skills and attitudes employers consider valuable and beneficial for a role we first need to give an explanation of what is meant by each skill or particular set of skills. The most common classification of skills is the separation of hard and soft skills. Firstly, we will begin with a brief definition of the two types of skills. Hard skills are the technical expertise and knowledge needed for a job. Soft skills are interpersonal qualities, also known as people skills, and personal attributes that one possesses (Robles, 2012). Hard skills are the first thing an employer will be asking for. These can include education, work experience and any professional training. Skills that must be included on a CV without too much explanation. These qualifications are always needed for highly paid jobs, they are the knowledge, practice and competence needed for a person to be able to do his job well. (Robles,2012). Hard skills may be the deciding factor when choosing the right candidate for a job, but technology has shifted the emphasis on the so called soft skills. Soft skills help employees keep the job in the long run. Most hard skills are only usable in a particular job and cannot be applied elsewhere, which gives them the name professional skills or job skills. In contrast developed soft skills can be used in many different roles and sectors, they are the skills needed for communicating with people properly and on a professional level. They are constantly developing in the workplace environment and their application is unlimited. The greatest feature of soft skills is that the application of these skills is not limited to one s profession (Robles, 2012). They also include computer proficiency which nowadays is desired in almost every single job no matter the sector. The ability to operate with programs from Microsoft Office is one of the most needed ability, which is considered to be a soft skill. Soft skills are the intangible, nontechnical, personality-specific skills that determine one s strengths as a leader, facilitator, mediator, and negotiator (Robles, 2012). The two types of skills however, are both important for people s success in their work. As Robles (2012) stated, successful managers who received a promotion had both the technical skills needed but also personal qualities, such as motivation and willingness to cooperate and work with others. 3

4 The importance of soft skills is the reason why companies spend more on their development. "Because soft skills are critical for productive performance in today s workplace, current and future business leaders are emphasizing the development of soft skills (Nealy, 2005). However, universities must also help graduates develop their soft skills as much as they help with the development of hard skills. As a study conducted by Andrews and Higson (2008) shows that soft skills are as important as hard skills for graduates, universities and graduates need to understand that soft skills are as crucial as hard skills and must be on equal levels. 4

5 What skills, attitudes and behaviours do Management Consultants look for in prospective graduates? Throughout academia students are often told that hard skills, which Green (2013) describes as learnable and technical skills, are sought after by employees. However, the number of graduates receiving 1st Class degrees has doubled since 2004 (BBC, 2017), making the job market more saturated. With a saturated job market and the amount of high calibre graduates at the highest they have ever been, the need for more than just a qualification has never been more prominent than now. An response from KZN Management Consultants (Appendix B), made it apparent that within consultancy they do look for a business-related degree as bare minimum. However, an ideal candidate will provide more than just a degree. Management Consultants help businesses improve their performance by solving problems and finding new ways of doing things (The Guardian, 2017a). Therefore, it is vital for a Management Consultant to be a logical thinker and good problem solver (As supported in the from KZN in Appendix B). In order to find new ways of doing things within an organisation, a Management Consultant must be an out-the-box thinker which enables them to innovatively devise ways of problem solving. This is not only beneficial within consultancy - in fact, Sokolova (2015) states that innovative ways of problem solving within entrepreneurs have never been needed more than now. Technology is constantly evolving and adapting and which means anyone involved in business will benefit from being innovative they need to keep up with the times. For a Management Consultant to successfully enter an organisation and facilitate change, they must have certain personality traits which allow them to do so in a more seamless way. In the with KZN Consulting (Appendix B), they stated one of the most important traits to have is passion. Passion within consultancy is fundamental, if someone enters an organisation and half-heartedly tries promoting change, there is very little chance of success. Passion is contagious (Smith,2014) and so if a consultant enters a struggling company with a passionate view of bringing success and change, their passion is likely to influence the existing workforce who may have previously been demotivated. Furthermore, 5

6 if the consultant is not passionate about their role then there is no way clients aiming to hire them are going to be assured of their abilities. A further skill KZN Consulting (Appendix B) stated was beneficial is the ability to work in teams, which is also a skill that is beneficial to all sectors within business. Very little business is done without teamwork and it s hard to imagine a successful business that is the work of a single individual. Specifically, within consultancy, teamwork is vital to effectively complete the job. Management Consultants enter an organisation and work directly with employees and aim to facilitate change. Without mutual understanding of goals, and no connection or teamwork with employees then there is no way a management consultant will improve the business. 6

7 Student Inquiry Project A website called surveymonkey.com was used to design a survey assessing student s awareness and understanding of the skills expected of them when they graduate in Mobile Applications, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, were used to distribute the survey to a total of 37 University of Southampton students. Each student that participated in the mini enquiry were not a part of the business school. The survey collected information using five questions. The first was about which degree the student was studying, with the following question: What subject are you currently studying at the University of Southampton?. This question was used to ensure students were part of Southampton University and not studying a degree offered by the business school. Our second question asked what the students ideal job was once they had graduated from university. This question was used to collect more data on each participant and identify any relationships between ideal jobs and skills prioritised in question four. Results from the first question showed the variety of subjects that were being studied by our participants. Notably there were several participants studying English, History, and Computer Science. None of our participants responded to question one with a subject taught at the business school. Responses from question two, regarding the participants ideal job, also showed how diverse our sample was. Ideal occupations included journalists, engineers, and doctors among other occupations and several unsure or I don t know responses of which there were four. 7

8 The third question in the survey asked whether the students were aware of the skills future employers were looking for. The graph below illustrates participant responses: 81.1% of our participants were aware of skills employers were searching for. Whereas 18.9% had either not thought about skills or did not know which skills employers are looking for. These findings coincide with academic literature expressing that a considerable proportion of undergraduate and post graduate students know the skills employers are in search of (Bruce and Gerber, 1995). These results indicate most students at University of Southampton have thought about and are aware of the skills they will need once their degree is complete. Question four asked the student to rank ten skills in order of importance. 1 being the most important and 10 the least important. The skills selected were obtained from a combination of written sources, including Anderson and Bolt s book Professionalism: Skills for Workplace Success (2013), and online sources such as Forbes (2017). 8

9 Question four significant findings include: 34% of participants ranked technical skills as the most important skill. These results support Green s argument claiming technical skills are a highly sought after set of skills. Effective communication was ranked the most important skill by 19% of participants. These skills were also ranked as the second most important skill by 22% of participants. This supports research by LinkedIn which found, from 300 hiring managers, communication was the most in demand soft skill predominately for entry level jobs (Roberts, 2016). Problem solving skills were ranked the most important skill by 15% of participants. These participants see the importance of problem solving much like Sokolova. 20% of participants ranked the ability to work under pressure as the third most important skill. 29% of participants ranked negotiation the least important skill. All participant responses for question four can be found in Appendix C. Our final question asked if there were any other skills the student thought employers were looking for in graduates. The most popular other skill mentioned, by the sample in question five, was self-motivation and passion. Resilience, being flexible and listening skills were also mentioned several times. 9

10 Number of mentions Group: 4B The graph below illustrates the most popular Question five responses. Additional Skills Mentioned Self-Motivation and Passion Listening Flexibility Resilience Skill N=25 Interestingly respondents in the study supported the findings of our KZN enquiry. Three participants specifically mentioned passion was what they thought employers were looking for. An additional three participants used the more commonly used synonym for passion, self-motivation supporting KZN s response which conveyed an important trait they look for in potential employees is passion. 10

11 How to secure the best graduate job The research results demonstrate the vast number of skills that are now being required from students in graduate roles, as well as their future jobs. It has become clear that although technical skills are important in graduates, companies are now expecting applicants to also demonstrate superior soft skills (Dishman, 2016). With 39 graduates now applying for every graduate job, the chance of each student securing their dream role is becoming increasingly difficult (Telegraph Staff, 2014). This further highlights the importance of looking past just gaining a degree, but also obtaining the skills that will differentiate you from other applicants and ultimately make you a successful candidate. Centre for Creative Leadership s 70:20:10 model suggests that individuals gain 70% of their knowledge from practical experiences, 20% from interactions with others and 10% from formal educational events (Crush, 2016). This model suggests that in order to gain both skills and behaviours it is most effective to do so by using real life experiences. This makes the three years of a student s degree vital to building these skills on top of ones they may have previously developed. The most important skill looked for in graduates from both our research and LinkedIn s was communication, which university life offers a great opportunity to develop. Some examples of practical ways (the 70%) to enhance communication skills whilst at university include socialising with peers, within both your course and accommodation, making the most of networking events and guest lectures to practice meeting new people. University life also provides practical experiences for students to actively improve their teamwork as there are many occasions where group essays or presentations must be completed which requires a lot of effort from students in order to be successful. Although there are many occasions when it is possible to develop communication, teamwork and other skills, a student has to be proactive in doing so, recognising the benefits this will have in securing any future graduate role. To help facilitate this it is useful 11

12 to note down any events where you demonstrate strong communication skills, or other skills in general, as well as how you may improve these in the future as this will give talking points to share during graduate job applications and interviews (Mills, 2013). While it is clear that soft skills have become increasingly more important, those base hard skills are still valuable when applying for a job. The use of technology within the workplace is ever increasing meaning that applicants with strong IT skills are often desirable. There are many online courses which have proven extremely useful for developing these kinds of skills, such as Lynda.com. When you complete a Lynda.com you also receive a certificate which can be shown as concrete evidence to employers (Hamid, 2014). In the competitive world that we live in, to ensure that you are selected for your dream graduate job it is vital that you gain all the skills you can, in order to present yourself as the ideal employee. These skills are not just for securing the role, but to apply going forward into the rest of your life in the working world. University provides a myriad of opportunities to gain and develop these skills. However, it is ultimately down to the individual themselves to do so successfully. 12

13 Recommendations for the Co-Design Group Apart from academic qualifications, employers want to assess the skills a learner acquires at various levels of life. Skills are the primary component an employer seeks from an applicant. Similar to medicine for a patient, fuel for a car, skill is the most essential part to getting employed. Skills can be learned during one s life which makes it heterogeneous in nature for which (Pouliakas and Russo, 2015) supports this within their study. Reviewing the response from KZN Management Consultants, it reveals passion is most desirable skill which is required in management consultancy (Appendix B). A diligent employer looks for soft skills like problem solving, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and adaptability. In the current job market, the majority of candidates possess hard skills which are easy to show on paper. But, soft skills are also highly sought after by employers and they are tested in real a business scenario. We tend to use soft skills in everyday life which include things like communication, attitude, positivity, work ethics and criticism. Soft skills are like technical skills and education, which is working with other people, it s not about what is on your CV but they want to know you as a person with whom they could work with. Education and qualification have their own use but there are some roles which the employer looks for like transferable skills and experiences that a candidate should try to acquire (TARGET, 2017). Employers don t want to build their employee s skills so that they could manage their workload, time management and efficiency in doing their tasks ultimately benefitting the organisation. Based on our research, the Co-Design Group members should take some further initiative to learn practical skills which can be gathered and learned in day-to-day interactions. For example, improving student s ability to work within their group and improve their relationships with project members. This can be done by targeting skills like communication, problem solving and leadership. Interacting and attending different employability events hosted by different organisations will also enable the Co-Design group to gather What skills are required by their dream job employer?. Once one has become confident and is hardworking anything is achievable in life. Organise, Prioritise, and Act is the path to success (Guardian, 2017b). Solving a mathematics problem on a paper and solving a real-life business problem differ hugely. Having theoretical knowledge is key but teaching student s 13

14 practical knowledge is imperative to getting them in the business door. The Co-Design group must help students bridge the gap between learning skills and applying them in a business environment. 14

15 References Anderson, L. and Bolt, S. (2013). Professionalism. 1st ed. Boston: Pearson, pp Andrews, J. and Higson, H. (2008) Graduate Employability, Soft Skills Versus Hard Business Knowledge: A European Study, Higher Education in Europe, 33:4, Available from: BBC, (2017). Record numbers graduate with first-class degrees. BBC News. Available from: [Accessed 10 March 2017]. Bruce, C. and Gerber, R. (1995). University lectures' conceptions of student learning. Higher Education, 29(4), pp Crush, P. (2016) 70:20:10 training model is 'most effective for learners', research finds Available from: [Accessed 18 April 2017] Dishman, L. (2016) These are the biggest skills that new graduates lack Available from: [Accessed 12 April 2017] Forbes. (2017). Forbes. Promising Jobs in 2017 and the skills you need to get them. Available from: and-the-skills-you-need-to-getthem/&refURL= [Accessed 1 May 2017]. Green, P. (2013). Workplace wisdom st ed. Illinois: iuniverse Com, p.16. Hamid, U. (2014) What are the benefits of learning from Lynda.com Available from: [Accessed 18 April] Mills, C. (2013) Keeping your professional development continuous Available from: [Accessed 19 April] Nealy, C. (2005). Integrating soft skills through active learning in the management classroom, Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 2(4), 1-6. Pouliakas, K. and Russo, G., (2015). Heterogeneity of Skill Needs and Job Complexity: Evidence from the OECD PIAAC Survey. Available from: [Accessed 5 May 2017]. 15

16 Roberts, M. (2016) Research: Soft Skills that Differentiate the Best Candidates Available from: [Accessed 13 April 2017] Robles, M. (2012) "Executive Perceptions Of The Top 10 Soft Skills Needed In Today S Workplace", Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, Vol. 75, Issue 4, pp Available from: Smith, J. (2014). CEO Explains Why Passion Is The Key To Success. Business Insider. Available from: [Accessed 12 March 2017]. Sokolova, S. (2015). The Importance of Creativity and Innovation in Business. LinkedIn. Available from: [Accessed 12 March 2017]. TARGET, (2017). 'How do you manage your time and prioritise tasks?' Tricky graduate interview question. Available from: [Accessed 4 May 2017]. Telegraph Staff (2014) Employers receive 39 applications for every graduate job Available from: applications-for-every-graduate-job.html [Accessed 12 April 2017] The Guardian, (2017a). What does a management consultant do, exactly? The Guardian. Available from: [Accessed 10 March 2017]. The Guardian, (2017b). Co-operative skills: what are they and why do we need them? Available from: [Accessed 2 May 2017]. 16

17 Appendices a) Contributions Student ID Contribution(s) o Have been an active member in the group chat and in class sessions. o Distributed the survey to flatmates and other colleagues. o Contacted KZN Consulting (a management consulting company) via to ask what attributes they look for in employees. o Wrote the section based on what skills graduates look for. o Created the initial master document on OneDrive which everyone then contributed to o Helped to organise dividing the workload between us. o Helped to distribute our survey to participants for the mini inquiry project. o Reviewed and analysed all responses in the mini inquiry project. o Wrote the Student Inquiry Project section based on the survey responses. o Have been active in our group chat and class sessions. o Worked alongside the member responsible for the final section to help improve their work. o Reviewed other sections making minor corrections where needed. o Assisted with editing the document, specifically our reference list o Distributed the survey to obtain research results. o Researched the definitions of soft and hard skills and wrote the first part of the project o Helped with the ideas about the project as a whole. o Was an active member in the group chat of the group. o Gave recommendations to others. o Was involved in the making of the questions about the survey used, and contributed to some of the questions o Distributed the survey to obtain research results. o Got involved as an active member in the group and group chat. o Helped to distribute the survey to friends and colleagues for the inquiry. o Wrote the Recommendation for the Co-Design group section. o Gave suggestions and feedback to other members on their work. o Analysed and reviewed other members part to support and conclude my research. 17

18 o Actively involved in group discussion, both in class and on the purpose made group chat. o Helped to design, and distributed the survey to obtain research results. o Helped with dividing up the workload between the group members, making sure everyone was happy with the section they were going to complete. o Wrote the section on practical training, learning and development, which linked on to the previous section of the survey responses. o Gave suggestions to other members on how to improve their work. o Assisted in the overall editing to ensure the report appeared professional and well made. 18

19 b) Evidence of to KZN Consulting, asking what attributes they believe a successful candidate has. 19

20 c) Question four complete data set 20

21 d) Screenshots of our survey 21