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Survey: Skills Based Approach Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite Overview A Skills Based Approach
I decided to take my skills based approach to the streets with a survey. My objective is to get a better understanding whether my proposed methodology is practical and effective, and can be facilitated with the use of a professional website. I distributed the survey to 119 Human Resource professionals from various industries and services; I chose Human Resource professionals because of their close proximity to employment evaluations and their interpersonal interactions with employees (the study could be expanded to include professionals in education and psychology as well). I broke down the survey results into 5 sections, including: effectiveness of a skill set as a summary of a professional background; best ways to plan the development of a skill set; what are ways to learn and build an expertise with a skill; what is a good assessment for a level of expertise of a skill; and how a professional website works with a skills based approach. Here are some of the summary statistics: There is a very strong response that you can learn a skill if you work on developing it and am determined to learn it properly; 69.7% of the respondents strongly agree. And 49.6% of the respondents disagree that you should only develop skills based on your strengths. Taking these two stats to together, there is a message that if you are passionate about something, whether or not it is in line with your competencies, you should still dedicate time and effort to learn the skills properly. The best way to build expertise with a skill is to take on a project at work 87.2% of the respondents reported it as very effective; volunteering and taking a class also had high rankings. All of these approaches suggest being proactive to learn and develop your skills. Most of the respondents (68.90%) have searched on a skill set and the largest segment (47.1%) think a skill set is somewhat effective in summarizing a professional background. This indicates there is familiarity with a skill set among human resource professionals. The respondents think a sample of work (1.83) is the best indicator of your level of expertise of a skill they want to take an unbiased evaluation of something you have created. This is followed by years of experience (2.28), references (2.77), and certificate from a third-party (3.12); although 21.0% of the respondents ranked certificate from a third-party first or second. Validating a skill is a difficult thing to measure across different services and industries. For example, in the IT world, a certificate is a very common way to evaluate a professionals experience in a technology or application, however, in the marketing world, a sample of your work is much more relevant. There will be more discussion on the survey results about validating a skill in a later blog. On the next page is a diagram that illustrates the four steps of the Skills Based Approach:
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Here is some information about my sample. 119 Human Resource professionals, all from the United States 82.7% of the respondents are over 30 years old and the largest segment (41.8%) is between 45 and 60. 60.9% of the respondents are women 65.4% have a college degree Over 20 different industries and services are represented There were 9 respondents who did not report their demographic information
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Survey: Skills Based Approach Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite Use of a Skill Set
Using skill sets is becoming more common in employment web services: LinkedIn has a search engine where recruiters can target skill sets and an interface where users connections can endorse their skills; and MonsterJobs has a sophisticated search engine to retrieve online resumes based on a skill set. One of the objectives of the survey is to understand whether searching on a skill set is a standardized, common procedure, and if a skill set is an effective way to summarize a professional background. According to survey, most of the respondents (68.91%) have searched for candidates based on a skill set. Almost all of the respondents think a skill set is an effective way to summarize a professional background the average ranking was 3.42 out of 5; only 2.52% of the respondents thought a skill set is ineffective in representing a professional background. The results of the survey indicate skill sets are a standardized way to summarize professional backgrounds across most services and industries. This means there is utility in creating a plan to acquire skills to reach you career aspirations; planning your skill set is the first step in a skills based approach.
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A clear majority of the respondents strongly agree that you can learn a skill if you work on developing it and am determined to learn it properly; moreover, 49.58% of the respondents disagree that you should only develop skills based on your strengths. Dont be discouraged if you need to learn a skill and it is challenging to you, work hard and do your best to learn it properly. The survey did not address the advantages in planning your career based on an evaluation of your strengths. Although, according to the Gallup website, there are a few advantages in utilizing your strengths: people who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job; teams that focus on strengths every day have 12.5% greater productivity.
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Survey: Skills Based Approach Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite How to Learn Skills
There are many ways to learn and build an expertise with skills in your skill set; this is what I call the building stage in a skills based approach. In the survey, I posed a question regarding the effectiveness of learning a skill with various methods: taking a class; joining an organization; volunteering; reading a book; and taking on a project at work. My objective is to understand the best ways to learn a skill, so a professional can properly plan, learn, and build an expertise with a desired skill set.
Taking on a project at work is by far the best way to build a skill according to the survey; in fact, only one respondent reported it ineffective and 87.18% reported it as very effective. This has two implications. First, if you are currently looking for employment, you should consider seeking a job that can build your desired skills and perhaps your only objective is to learn skills so the job is a stepping stone to a more long term job in the future. Second, if you are already employed, you may want to be assertive and take a role on a project that can help you build your desired skills; Copyright 2012 TheProfessionalWebsite Page 7
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Many respondents (21%) ranked certificate from a third-party first or second. Before the survey, I thought this would be the highest ranked method of verifying a skill set. However, after going through the results of the survey, I realized that the use of certifications is concentrated in certain areas: IT, finance, and accounting. This explains why some respondents ranked it high, but most respondents ranked it low. Copyright 2012 TheProfessionalWebsite Page 9
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Most of the respondents (68.91%) have searched on a skill set and think a skill set is an effective way to summarize a professional background. Skills are integrated into the fabric of a professional website. Once you have acquired some expertise with a skill, you can present them by linking them to your professional experiences employment, Copyright 2012 TheProfessionalWebsite Page 11
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