Soft skills training in India boosts productivity, say US researchers

Workers with well-honed soft skills tend to work at better firms and fetch higher wages

GN Bureau | February 3, 2017


#Productivity   #Skill India   #Wagers   #Employment  
Representational image
Representational image

Workers with well-honed soft skills—time and stress management, problem-solving, communication and good teamwork, for example—tend to work at better firms and fetch higher wages, showed research carried out by researchers from US universities. Employer surveys suggest that this set of skills is just as highly demanded as technical know-how.

Read: Skill Development in India: Big Promises, Tall Failures 

Achyuta Adhvaryu, assistant professor of business economics and public policy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, wondered whether providing soft skills training to female garment workers in India could improve their workplace outcomes.    

"We found that despite a high overall turnover rate in the industry, more treated workers are retained," Adhvaryu said. "And treated workers
are 12 percent more productive than those who did not receive the training in soft skills."

Adhvaryu, along with co-authors Namrata Kala of Harvard University and Anant Nyshadham of Boston College, partnered with Shahi Exports, the largest ready-made garment exporter in India, whose clients include Gap Inc., Walmart, JC Penney and Target, according to its website.

The firm is also the single largest private employer of unskilled and semi-skilled female labour in the country. The program Adhvaryu and colleagues evaluated aimed to empower female garment workers with training in a broad variety of soft skills, including communication, time management, problem-solving and decision-making and legal and financial literacy.

Read: Skill India: How Uber is generating livelihood opportunities for youngsters


To assess the program's impacts, the researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial in five garment factories in Bengaluru. Workers enrolled in a lottery for the chance to participate, and then were chosen at random to take part in the program. Those who were not randomly selected served as controls.

Nine months after the program ended, productivity gains, along with an increase in person-days due to retention changes, helped generate a whopping 256 percent net return on investment.

"Wages rose very little—about 0.5 percent—after the program period, indicating that the firm keeps most of the gains from the increased productivity of labour," Adhvaryu said.
 

Comments

 

Other News

Gandhian movement after Gandhi failed: Ram Guha

The Gandhian movement in India, after Gandhi’s death, failed, says Ramachandra Guha, and blames Vinoba Bhave for it. But the movement found new, fertile grounds around the world and succeeded in bringing about a change in South Africa, the US and elsewhere. It is high time it returned home. Of cour

When religion, politics and Bollywood come together

Tavleen Singh, noted journalist and political commentator, has turned to fiction, with her debut novel ‘The Actor’ (HaperCollins India). Set in the near future, it has a superstar, Amit Singh, turning to politics, when the political landscape is dominated by prime minister Guru Gaynendraj

Cabinet approves setting up of Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority

The union cabinet, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday approved the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), called Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA), to strengthen research, planning, appraisal, monitoring and impact assessment within the broad domains of Transp

Why foundational literacy and numeracy is key to school education

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) are often described as the building blocks of education. Yet, their significance goes well beyond a child’s ability to read a sentence, write a response or solve a basic mathematical problem. These foundational skills shape how children understand the world,

When police data becomes the algorithm

For decades, policing has followed a familiar sequence: a crime occurs, the police respond, an investigation produces records and those records become part of the institutional memory of the criminal justice system. Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter that sequence. Instead of merely recording

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter