What Kenya employers think about soft skills

A recent survey has revealed what Kenyan employers think about soft skills and how far they are willing to go to acquire them. Carried out with the support of the Mastercard Foundation, the survey interviewed 1,364 employers from over 20 different sectors across Kenya.

The aim was to try and answer the following questions: what are employers’ perceptions about soft skills? What do employers say are the most important soft skills? How well do employers signal required soft skills to potential employees?

Answering these questions is important for policymakers and skills providers as it forms the basis on which necessary education sector reforms can be carried out to address the challenge of the lack of appropriate work skills in Kenya. It also helps inform employers what they can do to address these changes themselves.

VALUE OF SOFT SKILLS

The research found that many employers in Kenya, 85 per cent, already invest resources to equip themselves with soft skills. Most of these soft skills are acquired in colleges and universities (56 per cent) while 44 per cent learn them at their places of work. When asked to rate soft skills on a scale from not important to very important, 91 per cent of employers say they regard soft skills as very important.

Who should train workers in these soft skills? Although a small number of employers (36 per cent) think that “employers have a responsibility to train their staff in soft skills,” 60.3 per cent feel this is the role of learning institutions and further feel that soft skills should be taught early in life.

Clearly, learning institutions are failing at this important task, a fact shown by the large number of employers (92 per cent) who are forced to support their employees to acquire soft skills. Most of this support is offered in the place of work through experiential activities such as; in-house training, mentorship, team building and motivational talks.

Many employers therefore feel that the education sector should offer similar practical and measurable soft skill programmes that aim at creating the kind of positive work behaviour that leads to the development of good employees.

Overly theoretical programmes are not likely to meet with employers’ approval. Finally, these programmes should be examinable, offering a verifiable certification record that can be considered when interviewing staff for different jobs.

Without such a record, most employers are forced to use ad hoc means to assess whether a potential employee possesses these important skills. For instance, 67 per cent of employers try to assess the presence of soft skills at the interview stage while 42 per cent try to do so after the person has been hired.

This leads to many hiring mistakes, especially when recruiting entry-level staff, which 69 per cent of respondents say they struggle with.

Many employees who pass the interview stage, perhaps by showing possession of strong technical skills, are later fired when it turns out that they do not possess the requisite attitudes and behaviour.

When asked to describe their ideal employee, employers say these are ones who: are disciplined (75 per cent), communicate well (64 per cent), take initiative (62 per cent), learn things quickly (59 per cent), are good listeners and have good social skills (56 per cent) and show self-confidence (53 per cent).

Lack of soft skills is borne out by this research. As an example, employers say the most important reasons for dismissing or disciplining an employee are: rudeness to colleagues or customers (74 per cent), unethical behaviour (64 per cent) and failure to follow instructions (61 per cent). Lack of technical skills as a reason for dismissing an employee was rated quite low at 33 per cent.

THE MOST IMPORTANT SOFT SKILLS OF ALL

Based on these findings, the researchers were able to establish that Kenyan employers not only value soft skills but they are willing to invest their own resources to acquire them and give them to their employees. In fact they value the following five soft skills above all others: discipline, integrity, communication, teamwork and leadership. Training programmes that provide soft skills should emphasise these five skills as a minimum if their aim is to train people whom employers are likely to hire and retain.

Of course these are not the only skills required and it is likely that, as the nature of work changes, employee preferences will change too. But it is a good place to start.

WEAK SIGNALLING BY EMPLOYEES

Having established what employers think about soft skills, the researchers sought to find out to what extent they signal these preferences to the labour market. An analysis of 1,417 job advertisements was carried out to find out how many of them indicated the soft skills required to perform the job on offer. The advertisements were drawn from five of the most popular print and electronic media platforms in Kenya.

The analysis showed that, although employers value soft skills, they are not signalling this preference sufficiently to potential employees. For instance, of all advertisements analysed, 32 per cent did not indicate any soft skills requirements at all.

In fact the majority of entry-level jobs, where advertised, do not indicate any soft skills requirements. This is strange because, while 69 per cent of employers say they face the biggest challenges when it comes to hiring for entry-level jobs, they are not fully exploiting the one tool — assessment of soft skills — that could help them overcome this challenge.

An important conclusion from this research is that employers should make it very clear the soft skills that are important for someone to work for them. This in turn will send a signal to potential employees, therefore encouraging them to acquire these skills.

For policymakers, an important lesson is that integrating soft skills in the education system and making them examinable will help employers in several ways, including: reducing the resources spent by employers to train their staff in soft skills; reducing the amount of time an employee takes to become productive after being hired, and making it easier to hire and retain staff by ensuring better matching between a potential job candidate and the actual job.

This would be much more efficient than the hit or miss methods employers are forced to use now and will lead to better employments outcomes.

What is not in doubt is that resolving the problem of soft skills provision in Kenya will go a long way towards addressing the skills mismatch, which will in turn make a positive impact on youth unemployment by ensuring that we produce workers that employers are happy to employ, retain and promote.

Reporting by Charles Ondieki, Ndungu Kahihu and Sharleen Muthoni. - Prof Ondieki is the chairman of TVET-CDACC, the council responsible for TVET curriculum, assessment and certification in Kenya. Kahihu is the executive director of CAP YEI, an NGO that provides employability skills to vulnerable youth. Muthoni is a consultant specialising in youth development.