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I recently read an interesting article by Anita Bruzzese in USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/bruzzese/2014/01/12/on-the-job-skills-you-need/4387645/ about the need to train “digital natives” in soft skills. I must admit that I did not quite know what a “digital native” was, so I did some research. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native, defines a digital native as “a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technologies and, through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts. Alternatively, this term can describe people born during or after the 2000s, as the Digital Age began at that time; But in most cases, the term focuses on people who grew up with the technology that became prevalent in the latter part of the 20th century and continues to evolve today.” My research further revealed that these “digital natives” typically have poor social and people skills because they do more tweeting, texting and emailing and less face to face communications then their previous generations. They appear to be so immersed in digital technologies during their formative years that they are less self-aware and lack interpersonal relationships skills. As a result of their poor business communications and social skills, businesses today have a difficult time finding new employees who are qualified enough to work with customers, peers and management. They report that they are “just NOT professional.” Anita Bruzzese http://www.usatoday.com/topic/73286342-90B1-4E6D-8DAC-1A39E79D98D9/on-the-job-anita-bruzzese/? reported that to make their new employees successful, BOK Financial Corp. has a special training program in both finance and soft skills. The program lasts 12 to 18 months and, as a result, BOK Financial sees much lower turnover. They have reported a 7.5% turnover rate in 2012 compared to the national banking and finance average of 16.5%. So it appears that the digital natives can learn the soft skills necessary to do a good job. In a recent study by the Georgia State Labor Commission http://www.times-herald.com/local/20140111-Mark-Butler-Rotary, 69% of first-time hires are likely to lose their jobs due to a lack of soft skills. They also polled potential employers, posing the question, If you were hiring a new person that did or not did not have soft skills, which one would you prefer? By 81 percent, employers overwhelmingly picked the candidate that had soft skills rather than just technical alone. In summary, the proof is before us…in order for new graduates (aka digital natives) to be “job Ready” and have a good chance to keep their first job they must be trained in soft skills and able to use them in their daily work life. Jim Stedt is a partner at The Business SoftSkills Company (GetSoftSkillsNow.Com) located in Santa Ana, California. They provide job readiness and workforce success videos for education, business, prisons and individual use. Training is available online, on DVD, or through an affiliate program. These products are the most complete and concise soft skills training packages now available for the price of an average college textbook.
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Digital Natives, soft skills, job readiness,
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