One of my favorite metaphors is the guy who stumbles out of the bar late at night and can’t find his car keys. Although the keys are probably somewhere back..
One of my favorite metaphors is the guy who stumbles out of the bar late at night and can’t find his car keys. Although the keys are probably somewhere back in the bar, he doesn’t look back there, nor does he look around his car: too dark in both those places. Instead, he looks under the street light.
Now it’s probably a good thing this guy never finds his keys; he shouldn’t be driving. But the main point is that he’s looking where it’s easy to look, not where he should be looking.
I think about this every time I hear that American employers are fed up with Millennials and their poor “soft skills” like teamwork, communication, organization, creativity, adaptability and punctuality. According to a LinkedIn study of hiring managers released last fall, 59% said soft skills were difficult to find and this skill gap was limiting their productivity.
A 2015 Wall Street Journal survey of 900 executives found that 89% have a very or somewhat difficult time finding people with the requisite soft skills. Said LinkedIn economist Guy Berger : “There are more employers that claim that soft skills are hard to find than hard skills. It’s a pretty pervasive problem.”
This isn’t simply an American problem. In the UK, a survey of 198 employers by the Confederation of British Industry found that soft skills were more important to employers than technical knowledge. In Canada, a report by the Canada West Foundation found that new graduates are technically strong, but lacking in soft skills like communication, decision making and ability to work in teams.
But what if when employers are looking for soft skills and not seeing them, they’re the equivalent of the guy who stumbles out of the bar and looks for his lost keys under the street light?
The vast majority of mid-size and large employers in the U. S., UK and Canada utilize Applicant Tracking Systems. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) make it possible for employers to post new positions online and manage the hundreds of applicants who typically respond to each opportunity.
