Attribute valued by employers
Specific skills, general attributes and attitudes.
Skills, Attributes and Attitudes
Specific skills are the skills in which can be taught, these skills are well sought-after in a lot of different job roles and are often the main attributes an employer would look for.
Technical knowledge:
Most jobs will require a worker to have at least basic knowledge of the subject they will be working with. An industry specifically will require an employee to have at least adept knowledge in the necessary field or fields. A smaller company may instead hire a person to work for them through the use of outsourcing. This is where a company hires a worker from another business to work for them for a time.
Health and safety:
As with technical knowledge, a business will likely prefer to hire a worker who has experience in health and safety as they would need the workers to be aware of risks and be able to take precautions so that they themselves do not have to pay out money for any mistakes that their workers make.
Working attitudes:
The head of a business will want it's employees to have an attitude to which would suit their job. This means that an employer would want employees who are enthusiastic and efficient but would not want workers who are lazy and try to do very little.
General skills;
General skills are skills in which a person may more than likely be born with and are often not taught in any way. These skills are useful to employers for many reasons such as displaying a worker's work ethic. Below are a few example skills that an employer may look for:
Planning skills:
An employer would be likely to look for workers who are efficient with planning skills, by this I mean skills that would allow a user to plan or look ahead to accomplish goals without hardships
Organizational skills:
An employer will be looking for workers who are able to stay organized or are able to organize their work and documents well. This means that someone who leaves their work in a mess would have a much lower chance of getting the job compared to someone who keeps their area tidy.
Time management:
Time management is a big issue in the work industry as every piece of work will have to be done by a certain time. Any work that is handed in late may cause serious issues in the company and could lose some workers their jobs. Another example of time management could be getting t work on time, this is not much of a concern as most would be able to meet this fine. However some people may constantly come into work late losing them their job.
Team working:
Team working may be a very important element to a job. This is, or course, entirely dependent on what the job itself actually is. Some jobs may not require you to work well in a team however others jobs might and as such will mean that employers will be looking out to see if you fit the team working requirement.
Verbal skills:
Verbal skills are very important skills to have in an organization as you would need to confer with other workers and higher ups to make sure you are doing the correct work and are able to discuss ideas they may have.
Written communication skills:
Written communication skills are used a lot in work these days as computers are often used more to send messages than actually going to see someone, it's easier and saves time. By written communication I'm referring to being able to correctly spell and write out words of a necessary language, this could also mean that you may need to be able to write and read more than one language depending on the job.
Numeracy:
Numeracy is a well sought after skill in most, if not all jobs, as it involves not just an understanding of basic numbers and calculations but also involves understanding and being able to work and expand upon both numeric and graphic information.
Creativity:
Creativity is a very well sought after skill in a lot of different jobs that would require a creative mind such as a graphic designer or games designer/ story writer. Creativity could be useful to a company who works in creative media such as games design as it would mean that a worker would be able to come up with and develop ideas and concepts that consumers would want to acquire.
Attitudes:
Attitudes are the way in which a worker acts towards their job and position in such a job. Below are some example attitudes that an employer may be looking for in a worker:
Determination:
Employers will more than likely be looking for workers who are going to be determined to complete their work well. This means that having the determination to complete one or more tasks would make you a more sought after employee.
Independence:
Independence may be a sought after trait as it means that a worker can be set off on his or her own task and would not bother any one else unless necessary.
Integrity:
Integrity would more than likely be sought after by employers as it means that a worker will not be of any risk to the company itself, it also means that the worker would work accordingly with his/her own principles as well as to not be of a negative nature such as being dishonest.
Tolerance:
A worker may need to have some tolerance to work effectively in a workplace. This is especially true for someone working in the games design field as their work may be criticized or asked to be changed, a person with low tolerance may not be able to handle this and as such may end up fired for any actions they take.
Dependability:
An employer will more than likely be looking for someone who is very dependable and can work well as well as help out with other people or get other tasks complete to the best they can. An employer may be looking for only the more dependable of workers as they may have important or fragile work that needs to be complete.
Problem-solving:
A worker with good problem solving skills is much more likely to be hired over a person without, this is because problems are very common in all work places and as such an employer will look for the workers who have the best skills in dealing with any issues.
Leadership:
Leadership can be a huge aspect that an employer may look for depending more on the work that is hiring. For example, an employer may be looking for a managing director or lead developer for a project. These roles would require a worker to work well as a team with other people as well as make decisions that would be most beneficial.
Confidence:
Confidence is a very large aspect to a job role. Since a lot of jobs require a person to present data and information such as findings or projects, a worker would need to have confidence in what they are saying as well as having general confidence to be able to stand and present well.
Motivation:
Motivation is quite a big issue with a lot of current-day workers as they simply do not care much for their work, they do it because they need the money and they do not care much for the work itself. This can have negative impacts on the outcome of their work and means that a job may not be making the progress or quality work that it should.
General, Interpersonal skills and written communication
Culture:
Culture is a big issue with communication as some terms and phrases may have completely different meanings or may just be non-existent all together in another culture that you may not be entirely adept in understanding.
Adapting your voice and terminology:
This is where a user would alter the way in which they speak to ensure that a person or group is able to hear and fully understand what they say and mean. The terminology a person would use would often also change and become more user-friendly.
Use of technology:
Terminology may be used depending on the audience to create a better understanding of the specifics of the communication exchange. This can be done through means such as explaining the compatibility of specific software or hardware.
Questioning/Answering:
Questioning is used a lot in communication as it allows a person to ask their subject about the subject of their topic. It also allows an audience member to ask a presenter about the subject of which is being presented.
Interpersonal Skills;
Verbal Exchanges:
Verbal exchanges are the most common form of interpersonal exchange. This is basically the way in which a person speaks aloud to another person or group of people about one or more subject(s).
Signing:
Signing is a way in which a person or persons are able to talk to other people who suffer from a lack of hearing or deafness. Signing isn't a largely used communication method however is often used in subjects that may have a deaf demographic
Lip reading:
Lip reading is another way in which a person who may suffer from deafness would be able to understand what a person is saying through the movements of their lips. This is rarely used compared to other forms of communication.
Body language:
Body language is a way in which you can show how you feel toward the subject at hand. Through body language you can show many emotions such as joy and fear as well as how interested you are in the subject at hand.
Positive/Negative Language:
Positive and Negative language are used to show how you feel towards a specific subject. Positive language shows how much you agree with the topic or subject where as negative language shows that you are against it and have strong feelings for it
Active engagement;
Active engagement is a very useful way in which a person can involve their audience to make them feel like they're important to the subject. Engagement involves the audience so that they are able to put their input into the subject allowing the presenter to find out more information easier.
Written Communication;
Emotes/Emoticons:
Emotes are used to show emotion in a message. This is because a message containing pure text shows very little in terms of emotion.
Letters:
Letters are used to send out physical messages or documents to another person or organisation. This is often done as a means of allowing users to receive and send out documents containing signatures as well as receiving important documents such as certificates.
E-Mail:
Emails are very similar to letters and as such are used to send text messages and images over the internet. Emails have a the significant difference of being computer generated characters. This allows a user to add aspects such as hyperlinks to their Email to allow the user to have more interactivity with their message.
Spelling, Grammar and Proof Reading:
Spelling, Grammar and Proof Reading are all aspects of writing used in all written communication as badly written or worded text can be misinterpreted or just not understood at all. This causes several issues such as a lack of correct interpretation.
Relevance:
Relevance is a big issue with presenting data in either written or spoken communication as a subject may often arise to which is not entirely relevant to the subject that was initially being spoke about.
Note taking:
Note taking is a way in which a person can keep a record of any important or needed information. When a person is presenting to an audience an audience can take as many notes as they need so that they are able to keep note of any important information that that may need.
Barriers to Effective Communication
Barriers are issues or aspects that may in some way or another affect how well a person or multiple people communicate. Depending on the severity or barrier itself, people may not be able to communicate with each other well. Or in some cases, at all.
Language:
Knowing the language other people speak is necessary to being able to communicate properly with them as they would not understand anything you say if you are talking a language they do no know or cannot understand.
Noise:
Other noises such as cars or alarms can greatly affect how well you are able to
communicate to another person as they ma not be able to hear anything you say over the other noise.
Distractions:
Distractions such as bright lights or other people can affect how well you communicate or pay attention to any tasks you may be working on. People will most likely pay less attention to their work if they are being constantly distracted which can result in less work being done, slowing business.
Concentration:
Concentration is a relatively small impact when compared to distractions as it is much easier to resolve and may not take as much time. Concentration is an issue as workers may need to stay focused on their work and have it done to the highest standard but a lack of concentration may prevent the workers from achieving a high standard of work or communicating well with another person who may become distracted easily.
Location:
The physical location of a work place may be a barrier to some people as they may be chair-bound or have injuries causing it to be difficult for them to reach higher places or climb any stairs they may need to climb before they are able to get to work. The physical location of the two(or more) people who are to be communicating would affect how well they are able to communicate, this is because a person in America would have a hard time talking to a person in France. This can be resolved though the use of Instant messaging, letters and Emails as it allows people to send and receive messages from other people from around the world
Jargon:
Technical jargon is easy to overuse because of it's simplicity and usability. Because of this it is very easy to use it in situations where another person may not understand. For example, a presentation explaining the meaning behind computer components would not contain complicated jargon or shortened names as the audience would not know what was meant, instead the full names would be used with explanations.
Physical issues:
Again, a person may have some physical issue causing them to be unable to access a workplace properly, this can include anything from being chair-bound to having a broken leg. These issues may cause a person to not be able to work properly as they may not be able to reach their work place due to either a temporary or permanent issue.
Another way Physical issues are an issue are
How could these impacts be reduced?
Some of these issues, such as noise and distractions can be reduced through the use of cubicles for work in places such as offices, this means that any conversations that take place are free from distractions and means that they would be more focused on the conversation than having to loudly talk with other people over the noise of more people in the background. It also means that visual distractions will likely not occur as the workers would not be able to see them.
Other issues such as location and physical barriers can be reduced by having either the workplace on the bottom floor or by having elevators and ramps for the workers who ma be chair-bound or injured. Another way this can be resolved is through the internet, this is because people would be able to send and receive messages over a network to communicate.