| Pub. Date | : March, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Soft Skills |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJSS10320 |
| Author Name | : Sanjay Deshpande, M M Munshi |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Management |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 19 |
Soft skills have become inevitable for employees to effectively perform their jobs in the services sector. A growing body of research shows that soft skills can indeed be effectively taught (Bush, 2012). The effectiveness of soft skills training on the employees is measured using Kirk Patrick's model of training evaluation to study whether soft skills training imparted to the employees of the service sector can transform employee behavior and impact dimensions of employee work performance. The results of this research study reveal that soft skills training is successful in changing employee behavior and does impact employee work performance. This research study has provided insights on the impact of soft skills training on the work performance of employees of the service sector and has contributed to the body of knowledge through the suggested training model and pedagogical tools for imparting soft skills.
In the current business scenario, the role of soft skills in ensuring professional success and longevity of employees has assumed higher importance than ever before. A research study by watts and watts in 2008 (Robles, 2012), seconds the above-mentioned point by stating that hard skills contribute to only 15% of one's success while the remaining 85% is contributed by soft skills. Ever since the term 'soft skills' was used for the first time in 1972, during CONARC conference in the US, the importance of soft skills at the workplace has leapfrogged to an unprecedented level owing to changing customer orientation , preferences and loyalty and new business models. It has become inevitable for employees to possess high quotient of soft skills besides education qualification, professional certification and requisite domain knowledge to succeed in the current competitive era (John, 2009). Without being equipped with soft skills it has become extremely difficult for employees to tread the professional path that was once chosen with relative comfort in the bygone days. With a significant rise in different types of services offered through online and offline platforms and ever increasing customer expectations of better quality of services, the pressure on organization and employees to cater to customer demands is only mounting. Given the present competitive situation, soft skills could become a catalyst to bridge the gap between services expected and services offered. Considering the fact that not every individual employee is endowed with equal degree of needed soft skills, imparting soft skills training assumes the center stage and becomes a key enabler to accomplish organizational and personal goals. However, it cannot be blindly assumed that every training imparted to the employees will be efficient and yield the desired success. With rising training costs, organizations end up with considerable chunks of money for imparting different types of trainings, hence it becomes imperative to evaluate the efficiency of every training program and compute Return on Learning (ROL). Evaluation of training helps to modulate training schedule, frequency, content and method, if found necessary. This study has mainly: