The current era is a challenging professional time to enter the workforce. The millennia-old path that parents of young people follow today – get a couple of college degrees or learn a professional and technical skill, then get a relevant job and stay in the same place for a whole career – is outdated and no longer viable. Most people aspiring to join today’s workforce must not only specialize in particular job-related skill sets, but will also need to upgrade and cross-skill as they change jobs, and even industries, often in different industries. their races.
This new workforce, then, needs a broad mix of skills for professional and business success. Companies that hire a more diversely-skilled workforce will have higher rates of innovation and overall productivity, and will be much more likely to succeed in the world of tomorrow. These days, a college degree or even two isn’t necessarily enough of a tool to give you instant and sustained success in the professional world. Neither will years of hands-on experience on your job, unless you add a little more.
The simple reason for this is that the skills most in demand by employers today are “soft skills.” Also known today as employability skills, soft skills are business and human connection skills and translate well across industries and occupations. These include essential cooperative skills such as communication and teamwork, as well as managerial and leadership skills such as problem solving, emotional judgment, professional ethics, global citizenship, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. Companies like Google are currently evaluating something called “learnability,” and this trend will only continue as more and more companies realize the advantage that a good soft-skills-trained team gives them.
Key industry experts and detailed data analyzed by Deloitte Access Economics, for example, show that the international demand for soft skills is growing and will continue to grow as technology, globalization and demographic changes shape a new world. of business competition. Deloitte Access Economics forecasts that soft skills-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030, growing 2.5 times faster than any other job requiring other skills. Research from the Society for Human Resource Management also found that employers are beginning to care more about a prospective employee’s soft skills than technical skills. Research from Harvard University shows that 85% of job success already comes from these skills and only 15% from technical skills. An MIT Sloan study found that training in these skills can improve individual and organizational productivity. Similarly, in an internal study, Google found that its highest-performing teams were those that were made up of people who were strong in such skills, including good communication, collaboration, and empathetic leadership. Deloitte reported that soft skills are becoming so important that by 2030, around 2/3 of all jobs will require soft skills-intensive employees.
These kinds of skills facilitate human connections, build relationships, bring visibility to the business, and more and more employers are recognizing the importance of reaping these broader benefits through these skills in their employees. Simply put, in today’s world, you can be the best in your technical field, but if you don’t develop the right soft skills, then you are limiting your chances of future career success. The workplace has not only changed in the last ten years; has become unrecognizable. Jobs in today’s corporate setting and the skill requirements for future managers for these roles have changed. Hard skills like your technical knowledge and education are still important, of course, but these skills are the invaluable asset that will set you apart from the rest.
Developing the critical soft skills that are needed and will continue to be essential to succeed in the modern workplace is crucial now. These non-technical, non-educational skills will go a long way toward any future success you desire. In the last decade, in the corporate world, it has become absolutely clear how important soft skills have become in staying relevant and achieving success in the changing workplace. Communication, the ability to work in a team to overcome difficulties, listen carefully and empathize with others, such characteristics have suddenly become as important as your qualifications and technical knowledge. Even in highly technical roles like IT, future professionals who have extensive knowledge of their subjects will find it difficult to get hired unless they are also adept at the complementary soft skills.
In 2015, research by the research group The Development Economics, UK, found that soft skills have enormous economic value, including preventing losses to any business caused by a lack of key soft skills in their employees. Such failure causes higher operating costs, results in lost business to competitors, causes problems meeting quality standards, and leads to delays in the introduction or innovation of new products and services. It is clear, then, that soft skills are not really ‘soft’ after all, and have become an ‘essential’ requirement for companies and their employees. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them “power abilities” instead, cutting-edge special tools that will set you apart from your competitors.
