Strategizing Soft Skills Resilience: A Holistic Approach to Mitigating COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Workforce Development

Authors

  • Mariia Vesolovska Department of Management of Organizations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, 79013 Lviv, Ukraine;
  • Lyubomyr Shved Department of Administrative and Financial Management, Lviv Polytechnic National University, 79000 Lviv, Ukraine;

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48161/qaj.v4n2a193

Abstract

: In today’s world, soft skills play a very important role for individuals. They help to be successful in the workplace or simply to be able to find a common language with anyone. They also have a crucial impact on the economy, as the acquisition of soft skills contributes to the more efficient functioning of enterprises and the economy as a whole. However, in the current context, due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain difficulties have arisen in their development in countries around the world. That is why it remains relevant to conduct research in terms of their improvement (in particular, for the human resources potential of employees of enterprises and civil servants). Thus, the aim of the study was to develop a unified framework to help overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the soft skills of employees in Ukraine, both in the public and private sectors. The main research methods used were analysis, forecasting, abstraction and the historical method. Thus, the paper investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the professional skills of the Ukrainian workforce. The article shows a decrease in the number of working-age population in the Lviv region and highlights various factors contributing to this decrease. It also analyses the correlation between different factors that influence the development of soft skills. Based on this, the paper then offers advice on how to overcome the consequences of the pandemic, and builds a model that summarizes the advice and provides an understanding of how it should be applied. The work will be useful for studying soft skills as such and understanding the possibilities of their recovery after the COVID-19 consequences; it also provides a better understanding of the impact of the pandemic on the development of Ukraine as a whole.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Hyder, H., Mahmood, Z., & Hasan, H. (2020). Soft skills: A research study on outdoing academics and conquer the world. PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt, 17(7), 7805-7815.

Touloumakos, A. K. (2020). Expanded yet restricted: A mini review of the soft skills literature. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 2207.

Marin-Zapata, S. I., Román-Calderón, J. P., Robledo-Ardila, C., & Jaramillo-Serna, M. A. (2022). Soft skills, do we know what we are talking about? Review of Managerial Science, 16, 969-1000.

Espina-Romero, L. C., Franco, S. L. A., Conde, H. O. D., Guerrero-Alcedo, J. M., Parra, D. E. R., & Ramírez, J. C. R. (2023). Soft skills in personnel training: Report of publications in scopus, topics explored and future research agenda. Heliyon, 9(4), e15468.

Sancho-Cantus, D., Cubero-Plazas, L., Navas, M. B., Castellano-Rioja, E., & Ros, M. C. (2023). Importance of soft skills in health sciences students and their repercussion after the COVID-19 epidemic: Scoping review. Intenational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 4901.

Malykhin, O., Aristova, N. O., Kalinina, L., & Opaliuk, T. (2021). Developing soft skills among potential employees: A theoretical review on best international practices. Postmodern Openings, 12(2), 210-232.

Dlugunovych, N. A. (2014). Soft skills training as a necessary component of it professionals. Herald of Khmelnytskyi National University. Technical Sciences, 219(6), 239-242.

Kolesnik, K., Oliinyk, N., Komarivska, N., Kazmirchuk, N., & Imbe, V. (2023). Future-teacher soft skills development in the context of Ukraine’s integration into the European higher education area. Interntional Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 22(2), 413-431.

Dzhurylo, A., Hlushko, O., & Shparyk, O. (2021). Innovative approaches to formulation and development of soft skills of secondary school students in the context of Ukraine’s integration into the European education area. Education: Modern Discourses, 4, 39-49.

Gnecco, G., Landi, S., & Riccaboni, M. (2024). The emergence of social soft skill needs in the post COVID-19 era. Quality & Quantity, 57, 647-680.

Silagadze, A., Atanelishvili, T., & Silagadze, N. (2022). Covid depression and search for a new paradigm. Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, 16(1), 121-126.

Abudaqa, A., Hilmi, M. F., Almujaini, H., Alzahmi, R. A., & Ahmed, G. (2021). Students’ perception of e-Learning during the Covid Pandemic: A fresh evidence from United Arab Emirates (UAE). Journal of E-Learning and Knowledge Society, 17(3), 110-118.

Brennan, A., Dempsey, M., McAvoy, J., O’Dea, M., O’Leary, S., & Prendergast, M. (2023). How COVID-19 impacted soft skills development: The views of software engineering students. Cogent Education, 10(1), 2171621.

Van Heerden, A. H., Jelodar, M. B., Chawynski, G., & Ellison, S. (2023). A study of the soft skills possessed and required in the construction sector. Buildings, 13(2), 522.

Tleubekova, L., Atemova, K., Turebayeva, K., & Kenzhebekova, R. (2023). Development of students' creativity: Results of practical testing of the learning model during the pandemic. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 12(2), 655-666.

Hladkoskok, L., Buhinska, T., Botvinko-Botiuk, O., Tytun, O., & Demianenko, O. (2022). Soft skills formation in professional-oriented foreign language education at higher education institutions. Revista Eduweb, 16(2), 194-207.

Bieńkowska, A., Koszela, A., Sałamacha, A., & Tworek, K. (2022). COVID-19 oriented HRM strategies influence on job and organizational performance through job-related attitudes. PLoS ONE, 17(4), e0266364.

Passport of the Lviv Region. Population and migration. 2023. Retrived April 4, 2024, from http://database.ukrcensus.gov.ua/regionalstatistics/regiontree.files/asp_tables_uk/46.htm

Murugan, M. S., & Sujatha, T. (2020). A study on soft skill and its impact of growth and productivity in service industry. JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory, 13(12).

Bora, B. (2015). The essence of soft skills. International Journal of Innovative Research and Practices, 3(12), 7-22.

Hendarman, A. F., & Tjakraatmadja, J. H. (2012). Relationship among soft skills, hard skills, and innovativeness of knowledge workers in the knowledge economy era. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 52, 35-44.

Tabieh, A. A. S., Abuzagha, H. Y., & Ghou, K. A. A. (2021). In-demand soft skills and employability during and post COVID-19: Evidence from EFL teachers. Pegem Journal of Education and Instruction, 11(4), 219-229.

Abudaqa, A., Al Nuaimi, S., Buhazzaa, H., & Al Hosani, S. (2021). Examining the significance of internal mobility hiring in determining the individual vs organizational outcomes: An empirical investigation from ADNOC FURSA Platform during recent pandemic of COVID-19. Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, ADIP 2021, SPE-207535-MS.

Periokaite, P., & Dobrovolskiene, N. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the financial performance: A case study of the Lithuanian transport sector. Insights into Regional Development, 3(4), 34-50.

Dmytriiev, D., & Dobrovanov, O. (2021). Post-COVID pain syndrome. Anaesthesia, Pain & Intensive Care, 25(4), 505-512.

Bocheliuk, V. Y., Spytska, L. V., Mamicheva, O. V., Panov, M. S., & Kordonets, V. V. (2021). Psychological features of post-COVID syndrome course. International Journal of Health Sciences, 5(3), 276-285.

Kenesbayev, S. M., Salgarayeva, G. I., Makhmetova, A. A., Idrissov, S. N., & Sabit, B. (2017). Management of information software systems in the corrective work with children with disabilities. Espacios, 38(46), 34.

Karthik, G. M., Mary Joshitta, S., Rajesh, R., Manjulatha, B., Chung, J. K., & Gagnani, L. P. (2022). Design of Covid19 detection based on relative eccentric feature selection using deep vectored regressive neural network for Corona Virus. Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Humanitarian Conference for Sustainability, IIHC 2022, 1027-1033.

Dean, S. A., & East, J. I. (2019). Soft skills needed for the 21st-century workforce. International Journal of Applied Management & Technology, 18(1), 17-32.

Miethlich, B. (2022). Vocational rehabilitation in small and medium-sized enterprises: An integrated management perspective on potentials and business impact. Berlin: Loos Verlag Berlin.

Mikołajczyk, K. (2021). Changes in the approach to employee development in organisations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Training and Development, 46(5/6), 544-562.

Abudaqa, A., Almujaini, H., & Hilmi, M. F. B. (2019). HRM practices as determinates of the employee intention to stay: The moderating effect of transformational leadership: A case of higher education institutes in UAE. Humanities and Social Sciences Review, 7(5), 1087-1096.

Silagadze, A. (2022). Contemporary global economic trends: Transitional economies during Covid-depression. Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, 16(3), 130-135. Retrived April 4, 2024, from http://science.org.ge/bnas/vol-16-3.html

Ntshangase, B. A., & Msosa, S. K. (2022). Enhancing service delivery for metropolitan municipalities in South Africa via project management. Insight into Regional Development, 4(3), 127-138.

Berestetska, O., Iankovets, T., Orozonova, A., Voitovych, S., Parmanasova, A., & Medvedieva, K. (2023). Using CRM systems for the development and implementation of communication strategies for digital brand management and internet marketing: EU experience. International Journal of Professional Business Review, 8(4), e01613.

Chen, T. C., Ibrahim Alazzawi, F. J., Mavaluru, D., Mahmudiono, T., Enina, Y., Chupradit, S., Al Ayub Ahmed, A., Syed, M. H., Ismael, A. M., & Miethlich, B. (2022). Application of data mining methods in grouping agricultural product customers. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2022, 3942374.

Patyka, N., Khodakivska, O., Mohylnyi, O., & Pugachov, M. (2021). Ukraine's agrarian sector in the conditions of COVID-19 Distribution and restrictive quarantine measures: Methodological principles of empirical evaluation. Scientific Horizons, 24(12), 55-69.

Mukoviz, V., Leshchii, L., Khodakivska, O., Prokopova, O., & Kuzub, M. (2022). Accounting for transactions costs of agricultural producers in the shadow economy. Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, 8(2), 67-85.

Published

2024-06-05

How to Cite

Vesolovska, M., & Shved, L. . (2024). Strategizing Soft Skills Resilience: A Holistic Approach to Mitigating COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Workforce Development . Qubahan Academic Journal, 4(2), 153–169. https://doi.org/10.48161/qaj.v4n2a193

Issue

Section

Articles