Many people are in the pursuit of new work. This could mean brushing up on job-specific skills for some, but technology has dramatically shifted today’s job market and with that, which skills are most valued. While skills in the workplace vary from job to job, there are several universal skills that can be transferred to any industry.
There will not be many jobs where an employee works alone or does not have to contact a client, which is why good communication is one of the most important skills a worker can bring to a company. Communication includes the ability to listen, empathize, and understand what is being said. This also means you should be able to manage your emotions when touchy subjects arise. Effective communication skills are also needed for demonstrating, presenting or participating in any group discussion or meeting.
Employees that can critically think, along with the ability to be creative when called for, can both become great assets that no business can do without. While these may seem like two different ends of the spectrum, they are actually one and the same, and many critical thinkers have to find a remedy to a problem considered “out-of-the-box” or too leftfield. Being able to understand the situation and also figure out a solution is exactly what companies look for in a prospective employee.
In this digital age, communication via email, texting, or in-house instant messaging seems to be the mainstream way to communicate for many, which oftentimes hinders the general quality of writing. While this is acceptable between friends and work colleagues, a good writing ability demonstrates clear thinking and the ability to explain an idea in a crisp, concise way. Writing is essential for memos, reports, proposals and many other tasks that clients and coworkers will have to read, remember and/or reply to.
Unless someone wants to start their own business from scratch and work alone, an employee must be able to work well with others. One must be able to control their emotions while interacting with co-workers. There will probably be disagreements at times since everyone comes from different backgrounds, but it’s how the employees react to these disagreements that is the important thing.
Many of today’s skills require adequate computer skills. Even with jobs where an employee rarely uses a computer, they may need to use it to input the time they worked, or perhaps they have to send reports to the business. Many processes that were once done manually are now automated and require knowledge of how to input data.
The above skills are universal between almost any type of job one may find, and effectively highlighting these attributes when seeking employment will help the worker stand out from the crowd.