personal attributes
Specific skills
Specific skills are required by the employee and are the key skills that are looked for when applying for a job. Certain jobs require an understanding of the equipment you would be working with such as any electrical knowledge and health and safety practices on keeping yourself safe and helping others.
General attributes
General attributes are things that you are good at but aren't required to get a job. Most of them will help an employer decide on you but they won't be necessary unless you have the specific skills. These skills can help you around the workplace but will not help you get a job.
Attitudes
Attitudes relate to the way an employee acts and what they can do based on who they are. Most of these will help in the workplace such as independence, determination and tolerance towards the work being given. When working on group tasks it is important to have to have other skills such as leadership.
Effective communication
General communication skills
General skills in communication are useful with cultural differences and adapting to new people and talking calmly. Your persuasive skills and describing technology to less experienced people will also help with sales and make you a valued employee. Also being able to communicate with customers clearly will help them out and recommend the company.
Interpersonal skills
These skills are more useful when talking to someone face-to-face as they can help with lip reading and body language. When speaking with someone directly you need to look professional while also looking friendly and helpful. By listening to the way a person speaks you can know if they are speaking positively or negatively and help them try and find what they want while not angering them.
Communicate in writing
In some cases you will be required to write a letter to a customer, in the event that you need to write a letter to a customer you will need to be good at certain things. The first and most notable is handwriting as it will show you have handwritten the letter and how well you can write. Spelling will also be noted and other things such as emoticons can be used as a bit of a comedic touch.
Barriers to effect communication
When talking to someone there are many background factors that may effect the experience and cause disturbance, all of which are common problems and are the cause of other people. Background noise is made by other workers in the building and outside the building. The noises can be anything from conversations to roadworks and all of them are very loud which gets in the way of effective communication. Distractions by other workers or things outside of the workplace can slow or stop speaking as your interests change and you mind concentrates on something else. Physical barriers can be people getting in the way of each other and anything that prevents someone from reaching each other like roadworks or traffic which can stop people from reaching the company building and talking. The location of both the consumer and the company can effect any conversations in numerous ways, the main reasons being phone signals and the distance needed to talk face-to-face. If an employee has a lack of concentration they may end up trying to find excuses to not talk to someone and lose a customer, in these cases the employee usually loses their job or is given lessons to help them which can take time which could be used more effectively.
Reducing the impacts
If any of these problems happen there are ways to solve them, some helping more than others. having multiple branches of buildings assigned to the company will help with any location problems, help people heading to one building and running into physical barriers and will provide better business as the company expands. Having trained employees that know what they're doing and can concentrate on the tasks given to them will help them communicate better with customers. Making sure there is a quiet area to talk in will stop any distractions from disturbing the conversation and help the customer faster.