Article [7] Soft Skills Required for Logistics Sector

Introduction

 

Soft skills are general traits not specific to any job, helping employees excel in any workplace. Soft skills do include skills like communication, teamwork, and adaptability, often termed as transferable or interpersonal skills. They’re essential for professional success for an employee. Enhancing the skills will be having a great uproar for an employee in terms of his professional advancement (Schulz, B., 2008).

 

 

What Are Soft Skills?

 

Below are examples of some of the soft skills that can be viewed in an employs (Vasanthakumari, S., 2019):

 

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Time management
• Critical thinking
• Decision-making
• Organizational
• Stress management
• Adaptability
• Conflict management
• Leadership
• Creativity
• Resourcefulness
• Persuasion
• Openness to criticism 

 

Why are soft skills important for an employee in an organization?

 

1. Identify employees who can have work completed in short time of period (Kačamakovic, M.K. and Lokaj, A.S., 2021).

           Example: A well-organized employee can get all the works done within a limited time frame. Also he  
                            can be able to achieve his goals within a short time period.

 

2. Sourcing the right staff who can do the job (Cimatti, B., 2016).

                  Example: When a group of employees are available for a new employment with certain educational and
                                    professional qualification, hiring the more appropriate candidate for the post will be based on
                                    his skills and also the qualifications.

 

3. Rather than choosing a person, choose wisely (Dean, S.A., 2017).

                   Example: For an executive post it is better to have young and energetic person who had the potential to  
                                   do and the enthusiasm for learning.

 

4. Employee being fit to the organization culture (Ngang, T.K., 2012).

                    Example: When a new recruitment being brought in then it means that the employee who joins the
                                     organization is fit to work for the company and to follow the company norms and culture.

 

How to evaluate soft skills in the workplace

 

Identifying and assessing soft skills in candidates is no easy feat: those qualities are often intangible and can’t be measured by simply looking at what soft skills each candidate includes in their resume. Besides, candidates will try to present themselves as positively as possible during interviews, so it’s your job to dig deeper to uncover what they can really bring to the table in terms of soft skills (Zheng, G., Zhang, C. and Li, L., 2015).

 

How do you assess soft skills in employees?

 

1. Know what you’re looking for in potential hires beforehand and ask all candidates the same questions.

 

When finding a new recruitment in the logistics sector you should be able to have the knowledge and the judgement that you make with regards to having the employee is a fact that he can be able to coup the work and have the ability of having the pressure being undermined and having valued the necessary skills for facing the issue.

 

2. Ask behavioral questions to learn how they’ve used soft skills in previous jobs.

 

Past behaviors indicate how candidates behave in business settings, so they can be used as a soft skill assessment, too.

 

3. Use hypothetical scenarios, games and activities that test specific abilities.

 

Often, it’s useful to simulate job duties to test how candidates would approach regular tasks and challenges. That’s because each job, team and company is different, so you want to find a candidate who fits your unique environment. For example, a role-playing activity can help you assess whether salespeople have the negotiation skills you’re specifically looking for. Or, you can use a game-based exercise to identify candidates who solve problems creatively.

 

4. Pay attention to candidates’ answers and reactions during interviews

 

You can learn a lot about candidates’ soft skills through job-specific questions and assignments. Even if you want to primarily test candidates’ knowledge and hard skills, you can still notice strong and weak points in soft skills, too. For example, one candidate might claim to have excellent attention to detail, but if their written assignment has many typos and errors, then that’s a red flag. Likewise, when a candidate gives you clear, well-structured answers, it’s a hint they’re good communicators.

To form an objective opinion on candidates’ soft skills and abilities, make sure you take everything into consideration: from the way they interact with you during interviews to their performance on job-related tasks. This way, you’ll be more confident you select the most competent employees, but also those who fit well to your work environment.

 

Conclusion 

 

Soft skills are essential for an employee in logistics mainly those who are handling the customers and other members related to the organization. They help representatives to build understanding with customers, resolve problems effectively, and provide a positive customer experience.

 

Soft skills training can help customer service representatives to develop the following skills:

 

·          Empathy: Judging the other person’s feelings and able to interpret.

·          Active listening: Hearing the voice of another person and trying to understand what he is trying to say.

·          Communication: Telling what you are thinking and delivering it to the listener in a way he can understand.

·         Problem-solving: Ability to face and resolve issues.

·          Conflict resolution: Trying to sorting out the issues in a better manner.

·          Professionalism: Showcasing yourself with the correct professional manner.

·         Resilience: Facing the challenge and responding to the issues more accurately.

·          Adaptability: Accepting change.

·          Teamwork: Bending yourself and to work as a team.

 

References

Cimatti, B., 2016. Definition, development, assessment of soft skills and their role for the quality of organizations and enterprises. International Journal for quality research, 10(1), p.97.

 

Dean, S.A., 2017. Soft skills needed for the 21st century workforce (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).

 

Kačamakovic, M.K. and Lokaj, A.S., 2021. Requirements of organization for soft skills as an influencing factor of their success. leadership.

 

Ngang, T.K., 2012. Leadership soft skills. Sociology study, 2(4), pp.261-269.

 

Schulz, B., 2008. The importance of soft skills: Education beyond academic knowledge.

 

Vasanthakumari, S., 2019. Soft skills and its application in work place. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 3(2), pp.066-072.

 

Zheng, G., Zhang, C. and Li, L., 2015, September. Practicing and evaluating soft skills in IT capstone projects. In Proceedings of the 16th annual conference on information technology education (pp. 109-113).