Soft skills and experience are in demand
From SeasonedPros.ca Insights Lab
It is often assumed that tech and data analytics are the skills for success in the digital economy.
This is certainly true, however organizations also require talent that understands how to work with other humans and sell products and services to clients who are also people.
People are not just data points.
There is a renewed demand for talent with people skills. Organizations need the human touch and wisdom to help them understand what data means and how to use it to achieve business goals.
Soft skills are in demand
Increasingly, employers are searching for people with soft skills in addition to technical capabilities.
These are the human skills that help employees collaborate in a team, motivate colleagues and understand other perspectives.
They are valuable to organizations because they can make decisions with a long view.
Soft skills are particularly important in disciplines like customer service, marketing and communications and HR.
Soft skills like empathy are often intuitive and learned over years of experience. They are difficult to teach in university programs and measure in tests.
Here are the top skills in-demand
- Communication, oral and written – The ability to understand complex ideas and translate them into language that can be understood by colleagues, clients and stakeholders.
- Teamwork – Many minds working together lead to innovation and fresh ideas. Workers who understand how to collaborate can motivate teams to maximize quality output.
- Decision-making – The ability to “see” pathways a business needs to follow in a dynamic economic and cultural context, and decide on the best ways to execute a plan.
- Creative and critical thinking – This is the ability to think beyond processes and “the way we’ve always done things.” This thinking helps solve problems with new and innovative mindsets.
- Compassion and empathy – stopping for a bit of small talk with a team member goes a long way. Asking the right questions and understanding what is important to a colleague shows that you care. This also provides important insights into clients and customers, which helps move them through the sales process.
Other soft skills in demand include a strong work ethic, punctuality, solutions-based thinking, and active listening.
Workplaces will need a finer balance of tech, soft skills and people experience to tackle the challenges of change.
SeasonedPros.ca is an on-demand business talent source. Clients with an immediate need for experienced talent trust us to source professionals for project, interim and part-time roles. Each professional in our national database has 20 + years of business experience. We provide our clients 2-4 four vetted professionals in 10 business days or less.