Soft skills demand to soar:Google sales head

“Soft Skills are important for a successful career,” said Google India’s channel sales head, Manish Chaturvedi at Bennett University.

“It is mandatory to acquire soft skills because it helps you in professional growth, if you have the set of skills, you would be respected, you would be able to help tour consumer,” he added.

Soft Skills demand to go up by 2022

Chaturvedi referred to World Economic Forum’s(WEF) research on soft skills requirement by year 2022 and said that as companies would grow the demand of soft skills would grow tremendously.”

He said that by year 2017, machines were only doing 29% of office work, but by year 2022, machines will do 42% of office work.

According to the research, half of employers expect to reduce their workforce by year 2022 because of automation, and all industries expect to suffer skills gaps.

“As the world becomes more digital, people in all roles and industries now need at least a basic level of digital skills, but more than half of companies said they would only reskill employees in key roles, and one-third said they would only give new skills to workers who were at risk, ” he said.

He said that collaboration between businesses, government and employees themselves is required to learn skills at work.

He also highlighted certain soft skills, which are of urgent need to organisations:

• Dependability
• Reliability
• Loyalty
• Commitment
• Open-mindedness
• Consistency
• Honesty
• Efficiency

He asked students to learn these skills along with college studies to ensure a successful career.

Google’s set of skills

He said that the internet giant looks into Emotional Quotient (EQ) of its potential employees.

He said that many who lack EQ would not make through the hiring process.

Google tries to maintain a balance between skills and soft skills and trains its staff to use both in tandem.