Many hiring managers have pondered the mysteries of recruiting a highly productive new employee who can hit the ground running on day one. This article proposes that the presence of soft skills in a new employee’s portfolio is the missing link.
This article provides value to hiring managers and academics by positing a conceptual model that could potentially revitalize the methods employed to train, coach, interview, and hire new college graduates. The model shows that success (measured as employee productivity) is the summation of education (hard skills), plus experience (time in one’s domain), plus soft skills. Each of the variables (employee productivity, education, experience, and soft skills) is moderated by cost and organizational culture. Further, the author argues that these soft skills are the preeminent factor among the three independent elements for new employee success. It turns conventional wisdom on its head by declaring that it is soft skills development that is the single most important predictor of a new employee’s success in a world obsessed by hard skills..
Author: Tres Bishop
Link: https://doi.org/10.28945/3803
Cite as: Bishop, T. (2017). The hard truth about soft skills. Muma Business Review, 1(18). 233-239. https://doi.org/10.28945/3803