Research overview: 

With the goal of graduating business majors with the level of information literacy expected by employers, two University of Northern Iowa researchers set out to determine the disconnect between the level of research skills that employers expect and what graduates bring to the job. The study, “Employer Expectations of Information Literacy: Identifying the Skills Gap,” will appear as a chapter in an upcoming higher education journal.   “The university wanted to know: How could we as a university gauge how well our students were prepared to meet employer needs?” said Dale Cyphert, an associate professor of management with UNI’s College of Business Administration. She conducted the research with Stanley Lyle, a UNI reference librarian and professor. 

The research, which was prompted by a discussion between Cyphert and a college recruiter for Principal Financial Group Inc., provides an evaluation of the business college’s Professional Readiness Program instituted in 2010, and more importantly, offers a glimpse at the shortcomings that many of your entry-level employees could be bringing into your workplace. Though the researchers surveyed employers on UNI’s recruiter list, the companies did not necessarily limit their responses or comments to UNI graduates, Cyphert said. 

The Method: 

Cyphert and Lyle used a matrix of workplace-relevant information literacy skills based on academic, library, business and industry sources to survey employer perceptions of new employee skills in comparison to the university’s expected levels of those skills. The method was based on a service quality (SERVQUAL) research model that has been widely used by service-industry businesses for the past 30 years. Surveys were sent to human resource directors of companies that recruit from UNI, with a request to forward them to managers and supervisors; a total of 165 usable surveys were returned and evaluated by UNI M.B.A. students. “Most of the time universities are evaluated with the student being the customer,” Cyphert said. “What our team did was turn that around and say, ‘Let’s make the employer the customer.’”

Results: 

Entry-level employees performed all skills below employers’ desired level, but the gap was not large. The three skill gaps of greatest concern related to detecting the need for research, recognizing that data are subject to bias, and using analytical methods to utilize information. 

“It came out that they weren’t completely out of the ballpark, and that was the good news,” Cyphert said. “By and large the (graduates)  were within a tick of being prepared, which was good to know.” 

According to the study, “Employers see a key skill as the social capacity that allows new employees to engage productively in ‘regular workplace interaction’ such that they are able to read the implicit and contextual cues that cause them to ‘detect the need for research.’ Respondents named, in particular, asking questions, teamwork, and getting along well with others.”

Regarding the second area of needed improvement – recognizing data that are sensitive to bias – employers’ comments suggested that they understand each of these skills in terms of relationship and communication skills. “Employers emphasized the need for ‘understanding the corporate culture and doing it the way that is generally accepted by our company,’” according to the research report. 

The third item was part of the larger category of “using information,” which included selecting relevant knowledge for communicating to others, effectively communicating research results, engaging in a meaningful interpretation of data with others, and using information to make strategic business decisions.  

“The largest gap in the uses of information involved the analytical methods, but the lowest expectations lie in use of information for business purposes,” the researchers wrote. 

Employers’ highest expectations for their new hires involved graduates’ ability to communicate their findings to others. 

Conclusion: 

When it comes down to it, research skills are far less critical than communication ability. As one employer said in the study: “People skills and exceptional communication skills are absolutely necessary for every employee.” 

Or as put by another employer, a key complaint was that “new employees were unable to format their communications so that colleagues could easily use the information being provided.”

Cyphert said the research also highlighted that vocabulary used in the academic world doesn’t always correlate with how skills are described in the working world. The survey results also revealed that some skills that the college viewed as important, such as the ability to use certain databases, were not as high on employers’ wish lists as other skills, such as understanding the importance of drawing on other employees within the company as an information resource. 

As a result of the research, UNI may add an endorsement in business research for students who have completed specific courses. “Those skills could come from multiple courses,” Cyphert said. “It’s not so much about adding classes as making the translation so that students can go to an employer and say, ‘Look, I can do this.’” 

A future step will be to conduct a followup study to determine whether the program is providing a better service to employees, Cyphert said.

Resources: 

Dale Cyphert & Stanley P. Lyle, “Employer Expectations of Information Literacy: Identifying the Skills Gap,” Not Just for Librarians: Issues in Assessment, Teaching, and Application, D’Angelo, B., Jamieson, S., Maid, B., and Walker, J.R., Eds. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press (in press).

SERVQUAL model research: 

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41-50. 
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multi-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12-40.