Employability and Personal Skills Required for a Job - Essay Example

Employability, Personal and Communication Skills Consider and explain the main employability, personal and communication skills required when applying for a job. This paper aims to discuss the employability, personal and communication skills while also focusing on the role of job description and person specification when applying for a job. In addition to these, CV and application forms are discussed from different perspectives. Employability Skills Employability skills are generally referred as the transferable skills which are needed by every individual in order to increase their employment opportunities. These fundamentally include knowledge, technical skills, attitude and concepts regarding the real business practices. Following are some of the required employability skills which employers usually seek in the potential candidates: Interpersonal and communication skills Ability to solve problems Self motivation Ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure Team work Organizational skills Adaptability Number skills Open mindedness Negotiation skills Personal Skills These can be understood as part of the employability skills. For instance, the most required personal skills are flexibility and adaptability which means that employees are able to generate new ideas while also showing openness to different concepts presented to them. Moreover, people who have the ability of working independently are preferred most. An individual’s professionalism increases when he/she is able to act positively while maintaining all the required codes of ethics. Energy and positive attitude further helps in achieving difficult tasks. However, it should also be reflected in one’s personality, outlook, manners etc. Communication Skills Communication skills have very high significance when it comes to employability because an employee who does not have good verbal and written communication skills then he cannot work efficiently. These include the ability to maintain eye contact and clear pronunciation of words. Following are the most important communication skills: Listening: Active listening relates to giving close attention to what is being said. It is actually reflected by the way an employee asks questions or responds to questions being asked. Nonverbal communication: It fundamentally includes eye contact, tone, body language and hand gestures which either encourage or discourage the listener to maintain concentration. Clarity of the message: Message both in verbal or written communication must be presented clearly. It is important to use few words in order to make the message easy to understand. Attitude: A friendly attitude or even smile can benefit a lot in conveying the right message without causing any ambiguity. Confidence: It shows that an employee follows and believes in what he is communicating to his sub-ordinates. Empathy: It relates to listening others’ ideas patiently while understanding their point of view. Open mindedness: Newly hired employees must have open mindedness towards their co-workers, managers and sub-ordinates. This will help them in generating positive emotions while respecting one another to a greater extent. Feedback: It is one of the most important aspects of communication as it ensures that the conveyed message is clearly understood. Job Description It is usually helpful in outlining the skills, education and trainings required to perform by a job candidate. It helps employers to distinguish individuals on the basis of their application forms whereas employees also evaluate different work opportunities through the job description. It consists of following sub-sections: Summary statement: This is composed of two or more sentences which clearly define the duties of an employee and details of reporting. Position functions: These are the daily tasks of employee with a description about supervisory roles. Attributes and requirements: In order to fulfill the organizational requirements employers outline certain attributes which they want to see in potential candidates. For instance, if the job requires machinery work then the specific machines to be used by the employee should be mentioned here. It also includes details about the work environment. Reporting: This helps employees in figuring out that how organizational operations are performed in a bigger perspective. Evaluation and compensations: Employees must also know their evaluation and compensation criteria so as to make realistic expectations from a job opportunity. This is also beneficial for designing courses and activities which can help them in gaining better evaluation scores. Compensations usually include salary, overtime, medical benefits etc. Location: While applying for a particular job one can also make decision on the basis of location and environment. For instance, organizations which have their offices in environment friendly locations mechanically increase employees’ motivation to work even in difficult circumstances. Person Specification It is basically a document which contains the job advertisement. It is actually published by the human resource department and other concerned staff members. Person specification summarizes the qualifications and skills required in a potential candidate. There are some essential characteristics while others are only desired by the employers. In some cases person specification might be formulated considering the personal attributes whereas some organizations give value to a particular skill over every other thing. People who are applying for the job must critically evaluate their experiences with respect to essentials presented in the person specification because it is useless to apply for a job which does not match an individual’s qualifications and skills with those mentioned in the essential list. Moreover, one should also give examples from their work experience in order to ensure that they are the most suitable candidate for a particular position. CV CVs can be understood as a personal brand because they contain information upon which a candidate is called for an interview. They are supposed to highlight the individual employee’s skills, experience and educational background. However, it is helpful to always formulate a resume according to the job description and person specification in order to help employers to make the recruitment decision. For instance, when applying for a job one can use the same key words in the CV as mentioned in the job advertisement while also stating relevant experiences. Application Form Application forms play a major role in the contemporary recruitment and hiring procedures because it is significantly difficult for an employer to check all the CVs which are received. Hence candidates are shortlisted on the basis of their application forms. In the recent time employers want applicants to fill the employment applications irrespective of the position they are applying for. An application form gives more advantage than a CV because it is usually in a standardized format which reduces the chances of employment discrimination. Read More