Are Soft skills Important in the Workplace? – A Preliminary Investigation in Malaysia

Abstract

Soft skills are described as career traits that employees should possess, such as leadership skills, communication skills, a positive work attitude and teamwork. In the twenty-first century workforce, soft skills are critical in the business sector. In Malaysia, the general sentiment of employers is that graduates fail to meet the market expectation and hence are lagging behind. This has become a grave concern as Malaysian graduates are seen as lacking in soft skills. The soft skill gap is said to have caused the high unemployment statistic of graduates. This paper seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge on the critical soft skill factors of new graduates from the employers' perspective through a qualitative study and an empirical examination in Malaysia. As this is a pilot paper, the objective of this study is to explore and examine the importance of soft skills competencies at the Malaysian workplace and to identify critical soft skills that are needed at the workplace in Malaysia on a small sample. This study will be helpful to institutions of higher learning because the findings reported will help to identify the most critical workforce skills and this will be useful for educators to more effectively include employability skills in their courses.

Conceptualisation of a Graduate Employability Framework from a Malaysian Perspective

“…Hanapi and Nordin, 2014;Rahmat, Ayub and Buntat, (2016) argue that Malaysia faces an acute graduate unemployment problem not because of limited employment opportunities, but mainly because of graduates who are not work-ready. Graduate employability research in Malaysia is mainly tuned to identifying employability skills rather than a holistic study that explores other causal factors (Seetha, 2014;Tan et al, 2017). According to Nesaratnam and Gayen (2018), the concept of employability in literature has thus far been ambiguous and contentious without a single definitive description.…”

Service Learning in Higher Education: Evidence from Malaysia

“…Higher learning institutions have been challenged to increase the employability of their graduates by providing the right technical skills, soft skills and work ethics (1). In line with that statement, majority of employers suggested that the curriculum in higher learning institutions must be enhanced to equip and create industry preferred and relevant graduates (2). As a matter of fact, Malaysian government has realized about this rising issue even earlier.…”

Leadership Soft Skills in Higher Education Institutions

“…This indicates a connection between employees" soft skills and performance. A study on the importance of soft skills in the workplace found that the soft skills gap caused the high unemployment statistic of graduates Seetha (2014). Soft skills played an important role in determining the success of a project or work performance, and they are required for the success of the organization.…”