Key Soft Skills Influencing the Employment Decision of the Employers

A Case Study on Graduates of Business of Dhaka City

Abstract

This study examines the key soft skills affecting employment decisions among the employers of Dhaka city. After examining 10 key soft skills, 4 soft skills such as good communication skills, problem-solving skills, working well under pressure and comprehension/thinking skills have been observed significantly influencing the employment decisions of the employers of Dhaka city. Factor analysis has been used to identify the most significant skills influencing employment decision. Correlation is also used to identify the most highly correlated skills. Simple descriptive statistics has been used to measure the degree of influence of the soft skills. General Linear Model is also used to examine the differences of employment decision making depending on the soft skills. Non probability random sampling has been considered as a sampling technique for collecting data. Sample size for this study is 201 respondents, 152 respondents from private organizations and 49 respondents from government organizations and 209 respondents from business graduates. It has also been identified that business graduates are aware of such soft skills like good communication skills and multiple choice fashions are the most significant method of judging these soft skills and training is the most influential method of measuring the improvement in learning soft skills. Business students should be assigned relevant tasks for mastering soft skills and also more and more practice of soft skills should be incorporated to the curriculum so that business students could make themselves competent enough to compete in the job market as far as soft skills are concerned and also would be able to meet the requirements of the concerned workplace and hence turn the employment decision in their favor positively and significantly.