2.1 When teamwork skills need a boost

Listen to Rebecca Fielding of Gradconsult talking here about some of the issues employers face when the ability of their employees to work in teams is not sufficiently developed.

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REBECCA FIELDING:

If I may give you a specific example of somebody that I recruited many years ago who had a genuine issue in terms of teamwork, and they were what I might describe and has been described in a number of different areas as a fragile perfect, somebody who academically had performed exceptionally well throughout their career and had gone to one of the most distinguished universities in the UK and had consistently performed exceptionally. And when she joined my organisation, she was immediately presented with a task, a challenge that required them to work together as a team because there was too much for individuals to do, and they had to complete that task within the first week.

And about three days in she came to me and said, I'm really sorry. I can't do this. I can't work with people who aren't as bright or capable or intellectually able as I am, and I'm really struggling to rely on the quality of their work. And that, for me, was the first time that I thought, wow, we have recruited somebody who's going to really struggle and understands the skills that are required in not just working with other people but, most importantly, valuing the talents and the skills of the other people who were in her team. So I think that's one example of where recruiters can struggle with individuals demonstrating teamwork.

The second and perhaps much more common is when people are less confident in a team, and therefore people assume that they're not contributing. Actually, it's simply that they're thinking and considering about their contribution to the team. And those individuals can sometimes be overlooked within teams and overlooked in terms of their contribution of the work outside of an immediate team, particularly team-meeting environments. And so for me, there is something there about self-confidence, and there's something there about contribution to a team in its broadest sense as well.

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Various studies have identified a skills shortage when it comes to teamwork. For example, Demos research (Dawson & Harrison, 2023) focusing on the employability of young people and involving a 500-person poll of employers, found that 45% said they struggled to hire young people with sufficient team working skills.

Similarly, the Manpower Talent Shortage Survey 2024 (Manpower Group, 2024) reveals a widening skills gap in the UK, with cross-sector shortfalls reaching an 18-year high of 80%. The number one ‘soft’ skillset employers report most difficulty finding is collaboration and teamwork

Every year, The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conducts an education and skills survey. The most recently available at the time of writing (Roberts, 2023), received responses from nearly 300 employers, ranging in size from small companies with less than 50 employees to large organisations employing more than 55 000 people. Responses were drawn from all parts of the UK and covered all sectors. While the survey no longer investigates the specific skills employers feel are in short supply, when surveyed on their investment intentions for the next five years, 31% of respondents planned to invest more in teamwork (p. 18).

So if employers are regularly reporting a shortage of teamwork skills, completing this course could give you a significant headstart over other candidates who are less aware of what working in a team requires.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the consequent rise in virtual teamwork, many authors have highlighted the challenges of creating effective teams in this online environment. Through a literature review and interviews with 300 remote-working staff from a diverse range of businesses, Baker et al (2024) identified one of the main challenges as ‘the change in communication patterns’ from face-to-face interactions to the use of emails and messaging platforms. For a virtual team – members who can communicate effectively and are willing to embrace new collaborative technologies, will be more attractive to employers. You’ll learn more about the opportunities and challenges of working in a virtual team in Week 2.