Rory Ball-Reeder

Task 2: The main employability, personal and communication skills required when applying for specific job role.

Introduction:

Within this task I will be using the information from the recruitment document I have obtained in the first task. I will then draw up a list of requirements which I will need for my chosen job role where I will then describe the attributes I already have or the ones I think I will get by the end of the course. Furthermore I will explain the importance of employability and the personal skills.

The Importance of Employability Skills

The reason you need employability skills is, because otherwise employers will not want to employ you. Another reason you need employability skills is to help give the employer more reasons to employ you over someone else. Some of the things that an employer might look for are as follows:

Suitable qualifications – Having the correct/suitable qualifications are essential to getting any job. What is meant by this is when employers are looking for a new employee/s they look at what kind of qualifications you have, which will mean you will be able to do the job effectively e.g. getting a B in English will help the employer to see that you are able to spell and you are illiterate. Whereas having an A in Maths would help an employer to see that you can do the basics of maths, e.g. adding subtracting. This would be helpful if you were applying for a job which might involve money e.g. cashier.

Experience in a similar role – What is meant by this is do you have any experience of any kind in what you might be doing. An example for my chosen job in Saga where I will be a travel consultant do I have any experience being travel consultant before, or have I ever had to deal with calls and selling things to customers.

Knowledge of products/services – This means what you know about the company, in this case it means do you know what the business is selling or what products they have on offer to the customers. For the job I have applied for in Saga this would mean what do I know about what Saga is trying to sell to their customers e.g. holidays, insurance etc.

Experience of specific industry – This means have you ever done or worked for another company which is the same type of industry. For example if Saga asked me wherever I had any experience of specific industry it would mean have I ever worked for another holiday company.

Effectiveness in meeting personal and team/department targets – This means are you able to meet targets which are delegated to you and you only e.g. complete all the work in 3 hours. It also means are you good at helping your team to reach their targets e.g. the whole team gets a target to make a catchy and effective advert to advertise their product, and you job within that could be to come up with ideas. A target that Saga will want a travel consultant might have is to be able to sell 200 holidays in a day and 1000 in a week.

Ability to observe and raise professional standards of production/service delivery – What this means is are you able to learn how to do your job by watching other people (observing), or do you need it to be written down what you need to do.

The Importance of Personal Skills

The reason you will need to have great personal skills, because a business will want to know what skills you are bringing to the company and how that will help them. It also is important to have, because otherwise you wouldn’t have a great deal of skills in order to do the job at hand.

Patient – This means are you able to take time with things or do you rush things. The reason this would be good to have is becuase4 they will need someone who has a great deal of patients, because otherwise they won’t be able to complete the work that’s needed to be done at the standards that want it, because it would have been rushed. A travel consultant for Saga will need to have a great deal of patients because otherwise they won’t make a great sales person. The reason this would be the case is, because Saga sell to mostly old people and they normally don’t have that good hearing. Meaning you will need to have patients with the customers in order to sell them things.

Hardworking – The reason why someone will need to be hard working is, because an employer will want to employ someone who is able to get the work that is needed to be done by whenever it is supposed to be done by. Saga will want to employ someone who is hardworking to fit their role of a travel consultant, because Saga will want someone who can sell their services to as many customers as they can. As well as they will want someone who can reach their intended target when they are supposed to.

Able to work as part of a team – This means are you able to work with other people. The reason Saga will want you to work as a team is, because they will separate everyone into their different job roles. Where they will be given a target which the whole team has to reach, and in order for the whole team to reach their goal they will have to work with other people.

Good interpersonal skills – This means what skills do you have and how will they help the company, an example of a skill which someone might have, is being good at counting up large sums of money in their head. The reason someone might need to have great skills is, because a business will want to make sure that you have the ability/skills to do the job which you are supposed to do.

Cooperating with others – this means are you able to take orders from someone or are you able to work with other people. The reason you will need this is, because you will always have someone higher than you that you will have to take orders from without arguing back. The reason a business will want someone who can take orders is, because otherwise nothing will get done and there will always be arguments, meaning in the end they will have to sack you.

Negotiations – This means you will need to be able to come to some kind of agreements which you both agree with when it comes to things you might want. For example in Saga if I wanted to leave early, because it was my girlfriends birthday then I will need to negotiate with the manager about making up the time the next day etc. the reason a business will want someone who can be negotiated with is, because if the business wants you to do something for them which you might not normally do then they will have to negotiate with you what you will get for doing it.

Resolving conflicts – This means that are you able to stop any arguments/conflicts which may happen between you and another person. The reason you will need to be able to resolve any conflicts is, because otherwise it could lead to something a lot worse. However if someone if good at resolving conflicts they can stop it before it escalates.

Agreeing targets and agreeing budgets – Agreeing targets is where you will need to set yourself a target which you think you can reach not one that might be impossible. This could also be where a manager negotiates a target which you will have to reach but again you will need to make sure that you both agree that it is still possible for you to reach. Agreeing budgets is where you and the manager both agree with what you will be paid per hour for doing your job.

Interviewing skills – The reason you will need good interviewing skills is, because you will need this for when it comes to being interviewed for the job which you have applied for. This means you will need to make sure that you are ready, and have an answer for whatever question the interviewer might have for you e.g. what do you know about the company, why can you bring to the company etc. The reason you will need to know things like that is, because they don’t want someone working for the business who doesn’t know a thing about it. You will also need to work on speaking to people when it comes to the interview, because they won’t hire someone who stutters all the time in the interview. This is because they will think that you are just wasting their time.

The requirements for a travel consultant at Saga and the attributes I possess.

Requirements for the role of a travel consultant. / Attributes I possess now. / Attributes I will possess by the end of the course.
  • Confidence talking to people over the phone.
  • Listening skills.
  • Meeting targets
  • Cooperating with others
  • Hardworking
  • Patient
  • Key board skills
  • High levels of customer service
  • Knowledge of the company
  • Intelligence
  • Good at maths
  • Good at time keeping
  • Good initiative
  • Good communication skills
  • Enthusiastic and motivated
/
  • Confidence
  • Listening skills
  • Cooperating with others
  • Hardworking
  • Patient
  • Key board skills
  • Customer service
  • Meeting targets
  • Good at maths
  • Good at time keeping
  • Ok communication skills
  • Intelligence
  • Enthusiastic and motivational skills
  • I also have great initiative skills
/
  • Better confidence
  • Better listening skills
  • I will also have better at cooperating with others
  • I will also be better at customer service
  • I will also have some experience
  • I should also be better at meeting dead lines
  • I will be even better at time keeping
  • Better communication skills
  • I think I will also be better at my enthusiastic and motivational skills towards my work
  • Even though I have great initiative I think after working at Saga I will would have a developed my initiative so it is better

Assessing the importance of employability and personal skills at Saga – M2

Introduction:

In this section of this task I will be going to assess the main key skills which are the most to Saga when they are recruiting new staff and attempting to retain existing staff.

The main skills that are most appropriate to Saga

Employability Skills:

  • Suitable qualifications – Saga will want someone want someone who has a wide range of knowledge when it comes to employing people. However I don’t think this will be the most important employability skill, because at the end of the day if they think that there is someone without good qualifications, which they think will be better suited to the job than someone with good education then they will pick them. Sometimes it also comes down to experience over qualifications.
  • Knowledge of products/services – This will be the biggest thing that Saga will look for when employing someone. The reason for this is because this will help Saga to provide a better service and create a better name for itself. Another reason they will want to employ someone with knowledge of the company is, because this could lead to them selling more.
  • Experience in a similar role – Saga will want this from someone more than having the qualifications, because that way the employer doesn’t have to train that person as much as what they would have to for someone who has no idea what they are doing.
  • Effectiveness in meeting personal and team/department targets – Saga will want someone who can meet targets, because this will effect Saga in many ways. Saga will be effected by this, because this could cause them to lose money due to deadlines being delayed. For example, if someone was late on getting the advert ready for a new service they will be selling. This could cause them to lose out on money which they could have made from the advertisement.

The Importance of Personal Skills:

  • Interviewing skills – I think this is one of the most important personal skills, because if you don’t have great interviewing skills, then it will be less likely that you will get the job. Which would mean some of the other personal skills will be pointless to have/use, because you will only use them if you had the job. For example you will only need to have hardworking as a personal skill if you had a job, because you wouldn’t use hardworking in your everyday life.
  • Cooperating with others – Cooperating with others is another important skill to have, because in life you will have to work with people at some point. This is also especially important for Saga, because most of the time you will tend to work in teams or with groups of people. Which will mean you will need to have great cooperation skills.
  • Hardworking – Saga when they are employing someone will look for someone who is hard working, because they will want someone who can get the work done by its deadline. This is defiantly one of the most important personal skills you will need to have when working for Saga. This is because Saga’s employees will have a lot of work to complete each day, because of the amount of customers that call them each day. This will mean the employees will have to work really hard, to make sure that they get all the work done (answer all the calls they get).
  • Patient – Employees at Saga will need to have patience with their work, because when they are dealing with the customers most of them are old age pensioners, and therefore normally mean they will have some hearing problems. Which will mean they will have to repeat things a couple of times. Within in this area of work it can cause the employees to become a bit irritant about having to repeat things. However they can’t get annoyed about this or shout back at the customers, because otherwise this could lead to you being sacked. Therefore meaning that patience is important when working at Saga.
  • Able to work as part of a team – Being able to work as part as a team is very important when you are working for Saga because most of the time you will get asked to work with other people or as a team. The reason for this is simple because this is how Saga runs their company. Therefore meaning you will have to work this way if you wanted to work for Saga.

How these skills help Saga retain their staff

Saga by listening and working out what skills an employee might have can, give them a greater knowledge at setting parasitic targets for the employees, which can effectively help to improve the business. This can also help to improve how well the company is run, because they are able to give better targets to people which will improve the business.

Conclusion

I believe from my work above about the employability and personal skills they are both very important when it comes to recruiting and retaining staff for any business. The reason for this is, because they all link with eachother in some way, and if you didn’t have one skill then the others will fail in someone area. This is also very important, because the employability and personal skills help businesses like Saga to see areas where they can help certain employees, and also gives them a good idea how long the employees willl work for them. This also help them to work out what kind of imporvements that they can make in order to help the company and employees be more successful. For example this could lead to some of this changes/improvements; better at motivating their employees, supply better resources for the employees to do their work etc.

Bibliography:

  • This is a website where I got the definition of the words which I then expanded further:
  • This is another website where I got the definition of the words from which I then expanded further:
  • I also got some of the information from the Business Level 3 Book.
  • This is where I got the job description from which I used to help me with my work:
  • This is a website where I got some information about what Saga does:

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