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Soft Skills

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The aim of this essay is to analyse the relation between the increased demand for ‘soft’ skills on recruitment and selection policies. It will firstly evaluate specific methods and then it will discuss the result of these policies on retention and organisation culture. The essay will also investigate the possible implications and the significance of ‘soft’ skills in recruitment and selection in the service sector. It will argue that control plays an important role in the relationship that develops between employees, employers and customers.
The shift towards a service-oriented business environment in the UK has been influenced by several economic, ideological and political changes that took place during the 1980s and the 1990s. …show more content…

For this reason, the selection process has begun to use more sophisticated methods in order to increase the validity and reliability of having the best employee for the organization (Marchington and Wilkison, 2005). For example, in terms of validity, organisations are advised to use structured interviews and cognitive ability tests. In terms of reliability, there are three crucial factors: testing being carried out at different times, the use of two interviewers and repeating the test (Newell, 2005).
Nevertheless, these methods cannot predict employees’ turnover. Morrell et al. (2001) discuss about two key concepts: voluntary and involuntary turnover. Voluntary turnover relates to the employee’s decision to leave such as illness or personal reasons. While, involuntary turnover relates to company related problems such as the need to cut costs or to downsize. Even if organisations develop means to identify the characteristics that influence turnover, neither of these two types can be successfully foreseen during the recruitment process. As a result, employers need to secure long term employment since a labour turnover will have a high cost both in terms of recruitment and selection and in terms of training sessions meant to enhance the employees’ soft skills. (Beardwell and Claydon, 2010).
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