Impact of soft skills training on the performance of employees of service organisations in Karnataka A case of Belgaum City

Abstract

The Prominence of soft skills has been highlighted by a growing body of research and evidence over newlinethe past three decades. Soft skills have become an essential ingredient for employees to effectively newlineperform their jobs in the corporate world irrespective of the sector. Research shows that soft skills can newlineindeed be effectively imbibed and studies have identified a number of best practices for teaching them newline(Bush, 2012). By making soft skills a priority, organizations can drive success, growth and greater newlinereturns on their training investment. Hence, the present research study has focused primarily on newlineinvestigating whether soft skills training imparted to the employees of service sector has any impact newlineon the work performance in the city of Belagavi of Karnataka State. It has also been in the ardent newlineinterest of the researcher to examine whether the demographic factors such as gender, age, educational newlinequalifications and work experience influence the work performance of employees. This research study newlinehas used both exploratory and descriptive research designs. Exploratory research design was newlineemployed to obtain an overview of service sector the world over and BRICS countries and also to newlinegain more insights and understanding about the overall service sector in India. The Descriptive newlineresearch design was mainly employed to test the hypothesis and to assess the impact of soft skills newlinetraining on work performance of employees in the service sector. The effectiveness soft skills training newlineon the employees is measured by using Kirk Patrick model of training evaluation. The study has used newlinecluster sampling technique and a sample size of 600 respondents (employees) was collected. The newlinesurvey was conducted in a variety of services organizations in Belagavi city such as the Banks (Public newlineand Private), Insurance-based organizations (Public and Private), Large organized retailed stores, Post newlineoffices, Star Hotels, Hospitals, Telecommunication -based organizations, etc. The analysis was carried newlineout using SPSS 22 version.