Adequacy of core knowledge and soft skills in the performance of professional employees of real estate firms in Nigeria

Purpose – Real estate professionals are vital resources to the property firms and the industry atlarge. Employees’ skills, knowledge and competence contribute in great measure to organisation’s business performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the adequacy ofcore knowledge and soft skills possessed by professional employees within the Nigerian real estate practicing firms. It also assesses the performance of the employees and establishes the correlation among the soft skills possessed by employees.

Design/methodology/approach – Data for this study were elicited through the administration of questionnaires on Principal Partners/Branch Managers (the employers) of the practicing Estate Surveying and Valuation firms in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one sample t-test, and correlation analysis.

Findings – The result indicates that employees of estate firms in Nigeria demonstrate adequate knowledge in ten, out of twenty one core areas of real estate practice while real estate agency has the highest mean; and inadequate knowledge in eleven others with least mean score in environmental impact assessment. The study also revealed that the employees possess good listening and communication skills but deficient in courteousness and writing skill, among others. It was also found that real estate employees were performing the best in inspection functions but below average in report writing and handling of transaction. The study also established a significant relationship among all the soft skills except communication skill and
courteousness.

Research limitations/implications – Further study that looks at the performance of real estate graduates working in other sectors/organizations other than estate companies is required to establish their competence level in global employment market. Further study is also needed to cover the views of the employees in Nigerian market as this study focuses on the views of the employers.

Originality/value – This study provides an important feedback for the policy makers in the design/review of curriculum for real estate education towards enhancing employability of the graduates. This study also serves as the research blueprint in giving attention to assessment of soft skills among real estate employees in Nigerian real estate industry.

Keywords Knowledge, Soft skills, Employee, Real estate firms, Nigeria