The perfect employee [BT broadband office]

The perfect employee

Posted 19 December 2007 at 8:34AM by Hannah Gilchrist in Doing business online

According to Microsoft, computer skills are still undervalued in the workplace. But do you feel it's still your technology skills that set you apart from the crowd? Or is it your personality that's helping you to succeed?

Once upon a time, knowing how to use a computer would set you head and shoulders apart from any other job applicant, but new research shows that it's now the seventh most important skill, coming below analysing and problem solving and flexibility.

But is it just a blasé attitude towards IT which is making people focus on more traditional skills, or are businesses coming to terms with the UK's skills gap? As many as 6.8 million adults in the UK still lack basic qualifications and many still struggle to learn numeracy, literacy and information technology skills. So will more traditional skills get you further in business or should IT still be a top priority?

Business Skills Countdown:
1. Team working and interpersonal skills
2. Initiative
3. Analysing and problem solving
4. Verbal communication
5. Personal planning and organising
6. Flexibility
7. IT skills
Source: Microsoft

Tags: bt, bt broadbandoffice, computer skills, microsoft

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Comments

1. At December 19, 2007 10:32 AM, Andrew Millar wrote:

I think that survey is a bit flawed. IT skills cant really be compared alongside the other ones mentioned. The others are all generic personal competences (most of which are required anyway to have good IT Skills).
Its a bit like saying which is more useful, communication skills or fluent German?

2. At December 19, 2007 2:24 PM, D wrote:

I would agree with Microsft on this. General IT skills should really be expected, and have become as standard as reading and writing. The skills ranked higher reflect a more general view of what the perfect employee should be capable of and they are many of the skills indirectly taught throughout School and University.

3. At December 20, 2007 8:16 AM, Scott wrote:

The problem I feel is that as IT is used everyday, it has become normal and as such most people looking for jobs just have these skills. Also, with the other items, they cannot be taught as easily whereas IT skills are easily taught.

4. At December 20, 2007 10:21 AM, Isaac Yankem wrote:

Surely it really depends on what job you're talking about. I think this idea of a generic perfect employee is fairly flawed. Some jobs will require you to be a lot more IT literate than others. Likewise, the other skillz mentioned above will be more vital in some jobs more than others. This whole survey seems a bit pointless to me.

5. At December 20, 2007 1:30 PM, Rex wrote:

If you write for a living, you can write using a pen or pc. If you are an artist, you can paint with a brush or using appropriate software on a PC. If the PC is the chosen tool in the job you apply for, you only need the IT skills needed to do your job. An example would be that a taxi driver does not need to know how to build and fix roads and bridges or cars, only how to use them in gainful employ. So what IT skills are Microsoft on about here? From where I sit, 7th place is fine. My opinion is that Microsoft's opinions are in general over-valued . . . by Microsoft of course. They'll be thinking that they are better than McDonald's next. The very idea !

6. At December 20, 2007 2:30 PM, vincent mcmahon wrote:

isaac should we value opinions where people use Z instead of S? a little bit immature iz it not?

i feel perfect employee skills will be different per job. teambuilding as 1? surely thats obsolete in some areas where a single employee is involved? i agree with initiative though as it is important

7. At December 20, 2007 6:41 PM, Isaac Yankem wrote:

Immature? Possibly. At least I understand the value of capital letters and correct grammar though.

I'm quite curious to know where exactly the data for this research came from. What size and what type of companies were they surveying? As I said before, seems a bit of a pointless exercise due to the vast differences between sectors and markets. (Or marketz.)

8. At December 21, 2007 12:53 PM, anjanesh wrote:

I think IT skills are ranked so low is because most employers take it for granted that applicants would be IT oriented and / or literate by nature .
dunno the reality

9. At December 22, 2007 7:51 PM, Tanvir Ahmad wrote:

I remember my first interview after graduating. The job was for Database Programmers and they called candidates from all disciplines and I guess you won't be surprised the people who got the job were all MBA's with no knowledge of computers. Why they did this. Well one insider told me because the big brains thought it is more important to have business knowledge and you could train anyone to do the programming. So they decided to employ the business graduates and would spend a few thousand to train them on database.

This is just one example and I am not surprised.

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