Another job skill employers are desperately seeking

This headline caught my attention last week: Companies want tech skills—and the ability to write in complete sentences. I’ve been expecting to see this. It’s a topic those of us of a certain generation have discussed among ourselves for some time.

An English major and a child of the 50s and 60s, I have watched language skills evolve, or rather devolve, and I’m not the only one. My social media feeds often feature posts about language gone awry, and many of the memes shared contain grammatical errors and misspellings. When they do, the errors grab my attention more than the message does.

Well, guess what. The same holds true for the employer filling job openings. If the candidate doesn’t have the ability to carry on an intelligible conversation or send a grammatically correct email, that candidate likely will not make the cut. How an employee communicates reflects on the company in many ways. First impressions are important, not only for an individual, but also for the entity the person represents.

The article, published on nbcnews.com, shared good news that the “job market for new college graduates has finally seemed to shake off its recession-era doldrums, with one estimate putting inflation-adjusted salaries at 14 percent higher than pre-recession levels.

“While the growing demand for scarce STEM skills is one driver of this increase, HR experts say another, less-visible factor is the number of young adults who enter the workforce unable to handle a 40-hour workweek or send a grammatically correct email.”

According to a LinkedIn spokesperson quoted in the article, “Demand for manufacturing skills at all levels is strong currently.”

The article also quoted Mel Hennigan, vice president of people at Simplicity Corporation, a software platform that helps colleges close the “employability gap” with students, and who also is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management’s talent acquisition special expertise panel.

“Although Harvey says her team does a lot of hiring for engineering and other high-tech positions that have become critical to keeping American manufacturers competitive in a global economy, one of the toughest hurdles isn't a mathematical or programming skills gap; it's finding people who can communicate professionally and be responsible for their own work.

“‘That's usually one of the bigger problems. They're lacking in good business etiquette communication skills [and] they're used to working in groups so sometimes getting them to work independently can also be another thing. Working on their own is more challenging to them,’ she said.“‘Our data also tells us that soft skills like communication, organization, teamwork and critical thinking are sought after across the board,’ LinkedIn's spokesperson said.”

Is this a new issue? I think not. I took an evening business writing class in 1990. The participants were both traditional and nontraditional college students, some of whom were employed. We were tasked with reviewing each other’s work. This was a real eye-opener to me. I naively thought that anyone who had a high school education knew and used basic grammar skills and could communicate clearly. I was wrong.

If I thought it was bad then, imagine what I think now in this era of text-speak. My daughter and I recently had a conversation about communication styles. In a previous life, she was a copyeditor for a large weekly publication. She can be even more particular than I am when it comes to the written word and sentence structure. However, because of the nature of the media, she has adopted many of the shortcuts when text messaging. I, on the other hand, refuse to use them. My messages are longer, but I don’t cringe after sending one. Regardless of this difference in our preferences, neither of us would think highly of a memo, email, report, or any other business communication that employed them. Poor grammar and misspellings would be distracting and cast an unfavorable light on the author.

So, don’t be so hasty when you write. Focus and carefully review what you’ve written for clarity and accuracy. Make a good impression the first time. You might not get another chance.