ABSTRACT
The success and survival of every business entity depends so much on the quality of skills of the human resource especially in the service-oriented industry such as banking sector where improvements in service need to be incessantly made in order to meet the increasing expectations of the customers. In addition, there are changes in technology which are found to be rampant in the banking industry such as the introduction of electronic funds transfer, electronic banking, mobile banking, and so on. This study examines employee set-skill and the performance of banking services in Lagos State. Quantitative survey research was adopted in this study. The data for the study were collected through the use of questionnaire which were sent to the respondents through their e-mail. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean, simple percentage and regression analysis. The result of the analysis revealed that employee inter personal skill, employee communication skills, employee social skills and employee cognitive skills has positive and significant effect on performance of bank services in Lagos State. The study recommend that a professional development training program should be developed in order to help staff in their organization enhance their t skills that will aid in boosting performance of bank service.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
The success and survival of every business entity depends so much on the quality of skills of the human resource. This statement is particularly true in the service-oriented industry such as banking sector where improvements in service need to be incessantly made in order to meet the increasing expectations of the customers (Rajendran, 2010). In addition, there are changes in technology which are found to be rampant in the banking industry such as the introduction of electronic funds transfer, electronic banking, mobile banking, and so on. This has however necessitated the need for enhancing the employee skill sets in the area of computer skills, accounting skills, communication skills, and so on, in the banking sector as per the enhanced technology. Employee skill sets facilitates a great deal in the acquisition of new technical knowledge and skills in the diverse areas of banking in order to render quality services to the banks customers and to prevent mistakes or errors that’ll make the bank to lose its image or reputation, (Leonard, 2011).
For a business organization to survive in this current competitive and dynamic business environment, organizational employees must possess both soft skills and hard skills. Thus, many modern-day employers yearn for workers to exhibit and do extremely well in many softer skills like teamwork and group development (Rothwell & Arnold, 2007). Employers are more interested in tapping into crucial soft skills accessible by employees during study and periods of working experience, rather than just degree-specific knowledge (Raybould & Sheedy, 2010). Maniscalco (2010), refers soft skills to cluster of qualities, habits, personality traits, behaviours and social graces, which an individual tend to possess in diverse degrees, and are considered necessary for day to day life as much as they are needed requirements for work.
Similarly, Lorenz (2009) sees soft skills as a cluster of personal traits, habits, behaviours and social graces that make a person a good employee and a well-matched coworker. Gibbons and Lange (2011) maintained that, the word soft skills are tantamount with core skills, key competencies and personal skills. Empirical researches have been conducted in different areas in Asia, especially Malaysia. For example, a study conducted by Shariffah (2013) showed soft skills in Malaysian tertiary education being a major concern of Malaysian higher school of learning. Also, Staffan’s (2010) carried out a study on improving individual employability revealed that; hard formal and technical vocational skills were seen to be of less importance. Commonly, these hard skills are seen to be less important in relation to individual employability and performance compared to other forms of soft skills. This showed a link between employees’ soft skills and performance. A study was conducted on the significance of soft skills in the workplace, and result revealed that the soft skills gap caused the high joblessness statistic of graduates, (Seetha, 2014). So, soft skills played a vital and significant role in measuring the success of a project or work performance, and they are required for the success of a business entity.
For an organization to attain a high work performance culture, it must provide training and development programmes to employees particularly to instill, build and change their attitudes or behaviours towards different organizational functions. As mentioned by Heathfield (2008), training is a vital component in creating a high work performance culture. For the fact that, training is one of the solutions that make an organization to accomplish a high work performance culture, it is quite essential to know the type of training and development programme that organizations must use to change the culture, i.e., the attitude or behaviour of the entire employees in the organization. This attitude will portray the values and practices of the employees and improve their job performance. In the modern business world, the skills needed for training of workforces can be grouped into two main categories which are: soft skills and hard skills.
The word “hard skills” are usually refers to technical or administrative processes that are related to an organization’s business (Maniscalco, 2010). Alternatively, the word “soft skills” are mostly referred to as the personal traits, habits, behaviours or attitudes and social graces that make a person a good employee and a well-suited co-worker (Lorenz, 2009). For a person to be competitive in the business world of today, such a person must possess soft skills as well to hard skills. It is frequently said that, soft skills keep a person on the job, but hard skills get a person a job.
Hard skills are skills that are usually easy to perceive, measure and quantify. In addition, they are easier to instruct, acquire and deal with simply because, generally, the skill sets aren’t something new to the learner and no unlearning or behavioural change is involved. Alternatively, soft skills are skills that are typically not easy to perceive, measure, quantify, and to deal with (Yen et al., 2001). For instance, skills like communicating, listening, dealing with humans, managing individuals and so on, play a huge role in relating to individuals. Some individuals make friends so easy, for example, which would be seen to be a valuable skill in the world of sales or business marketing. In reality, soft skills consist of competencies that span a wide range: self-discovery, a person’s attitude or behaviour towards managing one’s career, handling criticisms and not taking critics so personal, taking risks, getting along with other individuals, and so on (Alboher & Marci, 2008).
Today, employees are the organization’s most valuable assets that need incessant capacity building activities to stay proficient in a competitive industry. For every business organization that wants to achieve a competitive advantage, each employee in every department must perform brilliantly. So, it is the responsibility of every organization to improve the job performance of the employees. Without doubt, the implementation of training is one of the major steps that every organization needs to achieve. The development of employees and learning includes different activities aimed to assist employees in meeting performance expectations and growing professionally.
1.2. Statement of Problems
The management and decision-makers of many organizations, both private and government entities, must ensure that their employees meet certain requirements in terms of academic and technical competencies in diverse knowledge areas. These hard skills are technical subjects like engineering, computers, accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and so on. Though, it isn’t clear whether the soft skills are considered valuable factors in employee competency, and if so, which soft skills are considered valuable to the employees’ job performance in an organization. The identification of different skill sets is becoming necessary in differentiating high potential and non-high potential employees in today’s global market (Boyatzis, 2006; Hopkins and Bilimoria, 2008).
Meanwhile, managers and executive directors of many organizations especially the banking industries are yet to fully identify the importance of soft skills training on employee performance. In reality, a number of managers have misconceptions concerning soft skills itself. Many grieve over the huge amounts of money spent on such training, that they can’t really account for its return simply because of the lack of ability of the trainees to transfer what they have learnt to their job’s performance. Many organizations put greater emphasis on professional certification programmes and training that comprise technical skills, i.e., hard skills, than on human skills, i.e., soft skills simply because hard skills are more directly applicable to the day to day functions and activities of the employees. This has become the standard for most organizations to resist investing in soft skills training and development for their employees.
As a result, over-dependent on technical and managerial skills at the expense of human skills or soft skills, which are deemed vital to the success of an organization’s management, may put at risk the organization’s mission in the long run (Muzio et al., 2011). Additionally, developing only the hard skills of employees would only make them more task-oriented and rule adherent however less relationship and initiative-driven. A research carried out by Bailly and Léné (2013), revealed a rise in the demand for soft skills for recruitment and recognition by the employer. They further warned that this increase in demand for softer skills may cause the service labour process to become highly personified. Most CEOs and managers of organizations today are spending huge time and energy on designing programmes, attending to details and monitoring the execution of routine tasks only. Consequently, they abandon to tackle emotional issues in a timely fashion, and sometimes create unnecessary stress and unhealthy working relationships with their coworkers and customers. Therefore, it was concluded that, to be competitive in the today business world, one need to acquire soft skills, which, according to Gibbons and Lange (2011), are tantamount with core skills, key competencies and personal skills.
To ensure that workforces, upon receiving the soft skills training programme, possess the skills taught and change their attitude or behaviour to portray their values and practices, the manner in which the programme is conducted, i.e., the training method, should also be reviewed. Mandakini (2002), training methodology encompasses the methods, materials, techniques and resources used to execute the training or workshop and transfer new knowledge, skills and attitudes or behaviours to learners or participants. Different training methodologies have been used to develop soft skills, like demonstrations by the trainer, discussions and debates, lecture presentations, role-playing, case studies, game activities and electronic media such as TV, video and film.
Therefore, it is on the note that this study will examine employee set skill and the performance of Banking service, using First Bank, Access Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank as case study.
1.3. Aim and Objectives of the Study
The main aim of the study is to examine employee set-skill and the performance of banking services in Lagos State. The specific objectives are to;
- Examine the influence of employee interpersonal skills on the performance of banking services.
- Determine the effect of employee communication skills on the performance of banking services.
- Determine the influence of employee social skills on the performance of banking services.
- Ascertain the effect of employee cognitive skills on the performance of banking services.
1.4. Research Questions
The following research questions are stated for the study.
- To what extent does employee interpersonal skills influence the performance of banking services in Lagos State, Nigeria?
- What is the effect of employee communication skills on the performance of banking services in Lagos State, Nigeria?
- How do employee social skills influence the performance of banking services in Lagos State, Nigeria?
- What is the effect of employee cognitive skills on the performance of banking services in Lagos State, Nigeria?
1.5. Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses will be formulated in their null form.
- Ho: Employee Interpersonal skills do not have a significant effect on the performance of banking services in Lagos State
H1: Employee Interpersonal skills have a significant effect on the performance of banking services in Lagos State.
- Ho: Employee Communication skills have no significant effect on the performance of banking services in Lagos State
H1: Employee Communication skills have a significant effect on the performance of banking services in Lagos State.
- Ho: Employee Social skills do not have a significant effect on the performance of banking services in Lagos State.
H1: Employee Social skills have a significant effect on the performance of the banking services in Lagos State.
- Ho: Cognitive skills have no significant relationship on the performance of banking services in Lagos State.
H1: Employee Cognitive skills have a significant relationship on the performance of banking services in Lagos State.
1.6. Significance of the Study
The study focuses on employees’ soft set-skill and the performance of banking services in selected banks which include First bank, Access bank and Guaranty Trust bank in Lagos State, Nigeria. The findings from this study will help the banks to focus on improving employee as determinant of their performance. So, this study has key implications, as it will help banks in Nigeria to practice training based on need analysis so as to improve their employee’s performance. It is also hoped that the result of this study will be helpful for government so as to make policy that will ensure that soft skills are being taught from schools in order to get the students equipped for the future. This study is of importance to employers so as to be able to know the skills to look out for in employees during the recruitment process. At the same time, the employees will be able to work on themselves regarding soft skills in order to be competitive and stand out in the labour market. Finally, the result of this study will serve as an aid for future research on the area for the academia.
1.7. Scope of the Study
The study focused on the investigation of employee soft set-skill and the performance of banking services in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study variables were delimited to soft skills, which include interpersonal skills, communication skills, social skills and cognitive skills. The other aspect of skills which was not considered is hard skills because it doesn’t relate with the customer perception. In order to make the research manageable, the geographical people of the study were delimited to Guaranty Trust Bank branches in Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.8. Operational Definition of Terms
Skillset:
Training: is the use of systematic and planned instruction activities to promote learning and is an organized activity for increasing the knowledge and skills of the people for a definite purpose.
Employee Performance: a performance, in the performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers present one or more works of art to an audience. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience members often applaud
Employee: is an individual who works part time or full time under a contract of employment, whether oral or written, express or implied, and has recognized rights and duties.
Bank: is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates credit. It can also be defined as the institution that deals in money and its substitutes and provides other financial services,
Soft Skill: refer to cluster of qualities, habits, personality traits, attitudes and social graces that everyone possesses in varying degrees and are needed for everyday life as much as they are needed for work. Examples are communication skill, interpersonal skills, social skills, etc.
Hard Skill: refers to technical or administrative procedures related to an organization’s business. Examples are writing, reading, machinery skills, etc.
Skill: is an ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carry out complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills),
Banking Service: is an end-to-end process ensuring the overall execution of a financial service provided over the web, such as checking account, transfer, payroll services, credit card processing, and many more.
Banking Performance: is defined as the reflection of the way in which the resources of a bank are used in a form which enables it to achieve its objectives.
