A Study of the Indispensable Role of Non-verbal Communication for MBA Students Seeking Jobs during the Covid Scenario

The study of non-verbal communication has become one of the major aspects for an HR manager in an organisation to judge the professionalism and kinesics psychology of a new candidate at the time of recruitment. Despite being strong in subject knowledge, many MBA students, especially from tier-II or tier-III business schools struggle with non-verbal communication and are not selected during the recruitment process due to inefficiency in their professional etiquette and overall body language. The present paper studies the methods for training MBA students from a tier-II business school in non-verbal communication for one semester (6 months); the effectiveness of the methods; and how successful was it in upskilling students in their recruitment process, especially during the pandemic of COVID-19.The author studies various modes of training through online presentations and video calling and identifies the gaps in students’ performance in job interviews. After assessing the effectiveness of the modes, remedial steps were taken in which various effective techniques such as learning videos on body language and online etiquette; role-play practice through video chat; etc. were introduced to students. The learning outcome of the aforesaid activities at the end of six months included enhancement of non-verbal communication in almost 60 per cent of the students and a conversion rate of 75 per cent against 67 per cent in the previous year.