Blog Post#1

A survey was conducted among employers and employees of various industries by CELC (funded by Temasek Foundation)from December 2009 to February 2010. 188 respondents completed the survey.

Question 6 of the survey asked the respondents to tick 'not at all', 'somewhat', 'important', 'very important' and NA to the question: How important is each of the following skills in your job? The following percentages are for 'very important' and the skills have been ranked based on the percentages:
1. Interpersonal Skills (72.7%)
2. Oral Presentation Skills (66.8%)
3. Email Writing Skills (66.8%)
4. Listening Skills (63.5%)
5. Meeting Skills (61.8%)
6. Team working skills (61.8%)
7. Report Writing skills (58.3%)
8. Proposal writing skills (53.5 %)
9. Socializing Networking skills (49.2%)
10. Digital literacy skills ( the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use multimedia materials in conjunction with text in varying contexts) (45.7%)
11. Intercultural skills (40.6%)
12. Letter writing skills (38.2%)

Question 7 asked respondents:
What do you see as the most common barriers to effective communication in your workplace?

The results are:
Inadequate listening skills (50%)
Inadequate oral communication skills (59%)
Inadequate written communication skills (41%)
Lack of interpersonal skills (56.2%)
Lack of intercultural awareness (27.5%)

In the light of this data, reflect on your daily communication, asking yourself whether you have been successful in conveying your message and understanding other people's messages. Think of your strengths and weaknesses when communicating. Then, in 200-250 words, write a post on "why effective communication skills are important for you". The post should be completed by Sunday, 23 January.