According to experts, automation will affect the broader workplace as soon as 2023 and beyond. We indeed can not ignore the fact that this could be the scenario we all face, given how rapidly robotic systems and artificial intelligence (AI) have advanced over the past ten years. Machines will perform the majority of skilled tasks and physical labor in the upcoming decades, forcing us people to adjust and find new professions. In response, professionals must focus on employability skills, which will help them push through the changes enforced in the digital, automated era.
We created this checklist so that we can begin tackling them right away. You won’t be all that shocked to learn that most of the skills we’ll highlight have been an area of interest in our articles for a while. Though these qualities will ultimately determine how we operate in the coming years, you may be surprised at up to what level the acquisition of these capabilities was overlooked for far too long.
New talents dependent on technological advancements will also emerge. However, these 15 employability skills will continue to define what it means to be successful in the 21st-century workplace, even if they weren’t around ten years ago. Keeping all of this in consideration, it’s now clear that we must improve these skills and comprehend their importance to our professions.
Here are the top 15 employability skills that, in our opinion, will be necessary for the workforce of the future:
Table of Contents
What Are the Top Employability Skills?
What are some employability skills that can play a transitional role in one’s career? Well, as per McKinsey, we can break down employability skills examples of the future into 56 fundamental abilities or DELTAS (Distinct Elements of Talent). We distill the list to 15 Skills in this blog:
1. Originality
Among the most significant forecasts is that most of the output in the prospective international economy will be innovative. Advertising, the humanities, graphics, entertainment, and publications are examples of “human touch” sectors that will be largely unaffected by automation. It occurs to us that even as humans, robots are a long way from understanding what makes anything “elegant” and “captivating.”
It is impossible to recreate the inventiveness and imagination that humanity has used to generate innovative solutions. There is an excellent reason why innovation has been one of the cornerstones of human domination and existence. It has enabled us to live better lives and test the limits of what was previously thought to be “literally impossible.”
One of the skills and competencies companies will value the most in the coming years is the ability to think creatively. We should begin developing our imagination even more right away because it is one of the essential abilities of the workforce.
2. Communication
It is one of those employability skills we highly value for all jobs and one of the most significant personality traits. It is easier to convey a message clearly when the five components of communication—the sender, receiver, message, medium, and feedback—are used effectively. A worker with effective communication skills helps the business avoid pointless misunderstandings and time wastage, which in turn boosts productivity.
Employability skills in verbal, nonverbal, visual, and written communication are all possible. You must be able to comprehend your coworkers’ ideas and directives to communicate effectively at work. Additionally, you must persuade your coworkers of your concepts and opinions to achieve your goals.
With experience, communication becomes better. Keep a pleasant attitude, pay attention to other people, and listen before you respond. Participating on social media or joining a club can help you improve your communication abilities.
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3. Solving Complex Issues
Our checklist of predicted employability skills also includes the capacity to use creative problem-solving to come up with answers. Automation is a viable option for issue-solving, and in some instances, it may even turn out that robots are superior to people. Machines are beneficial when solving problems by selecting predetermined actions that established protocols must follow.
The majority of problems, though, don’t fit into any pre-established configurations or techniques, which is significant. The majority of the issues include sophisticated situations with complex outcomes that cannot all be described by variables of zeros and ones or by any quantitative techniques. Problems frequently have no logical solutions at all!
Now, that’s where people significantly outperform robots. When solving difficulties, we can discern several implicit elements and considerations. Compassion, interpersonal sensitivity, morality, and ethics are a few examples of implicit decision-making components that only people can understand.
Complicated issue-solving will become one of the highly prized employability skills for the future workforce because of how keen and sensitive one must be to these elements.
4. Critical Thinking
To create workable answers, one needs to be able to recognize problems, collect data, and interpret them critically. The most crucial component is the capacity to discern hidden assumptions and the significance of specific issue facts. Humans have the advantage of being able to see how everything is interconnected. Additionally, critical thinking necessitates being aware that you should not take all information literally.
Automation makes it simple to assess priorities, gather data, and evaluate results. However, this list of future human employability abilities still includes critical thinking. This is because when dealing with problems, making sense of all the complicated linkages, interconnected ideas, and implicit assumptions enables us to prioritize and evaluate information more effectively, which we then utilize to think about the best solution.
5. Dynamism
Every level of an organization requires strong leadership. Employers search for applicants with such sets of employability skills. Suppose you can effectively manage your team members, inspire and train the employees to enhance their work practices and set targets or goals for the coworkers to share for the corporation’s benefit. In that case, you can showcase your leadership qualities.
6. Online Cooperation
Technology developments have allowed people worldwide to collaborate through online virtual teams. As a result, more variety is now possible in the workplace, allowing employees to collaborate with individuals from other cultures, time zones, and locations.
Of course, face-to-face contact will continue to be the preferred method in the workplace. While looking for the most successful and economical way to implement the remote workforce system, organizations naturally want to hire the best employees on the planet.
Virtual collaboration is one of the critical skills we need to implement immediately. In addition to the standard tools and procedures, soft skills in the workplace are also necessary for this. Collaboration, cross-cultural awareness, and flexibility in a multicultural setting are just a few skills that virtual team members need.
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7. Teamwork
Teamwork employability skills are the capacity to understand your place within the team and get along with your teammates. Teams must work together more than ever to increase productivity in the face of fierce global competition. Workflow improvements, greater coworker relationships, and higher job satisfaction all help teams perform better.
Collaboration is a necessary component of all employability skills. A better workplace is a cooperative effort as a teamwork ability. Your prospects of being recruited by a corporation to assist more efficiently in achieving the organization’s goals also increase. The organization’s stability, inventiveness, and productivity are directly impacted by how well teams of people operate together.
You can use the following to improve teamwork employability skills:
- Recognize your team goal and comprehend your role’s responsibilities.
- Use your time wisely and be explicit about deadlines, guidelines, or task goals.
- Tell your coworkers how passionate you are about a project.
- Give your team members the respect and recognition they deserve.
- To resolve any conflicts, work effectively as a team.
- For more drive and a positive outlook, join a soccer team or take up a sport.
- Become a volunteer for organizations and provide a hand to coworkers at work to improve your teamwork abilities.
8. Social IQ
Another among the future employability skills that employers will be looking for is social intelligence. Social intelligence, also called “people skills,” is how we manage complicated social connections. It is simply our propensity to associate with others.
Emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize and manage our own and other people’s emotions, is closely related to people skills. Since most interactions with clients, consumers, and peers will likely occur online in the future, social intelligence is unquestionably one of the abilities you’ll need for a position in that field.
9. Knowledge of New Media
The definition of computer literacy used today is out of date. The days of having a successful profession requiring little more than the ability to use office-related software and operate a computer are long gone. One of the essential employability skills for the future is undoubtedly literacy in digital media.
The use of various digital media is gradually replacing other forms of literacy regarding computers. Blogging, social networking, online newspapers, digital games, and augmented reality are just a few examples of these new media, but there are many more.
These would somehow warrant being utilized so that staff could readily conduct business with clients or one another on the abovementioned platforms.
10. Dependability
Being trustworthy and dependable is on the list of crucial employability skills since it promotes credibility within the company. The secret to reliability is consistency. Always stick to your schedule and deliver high-quality work. Your trustworthiness will increase when you perform well at work and meet or exceed expectations.
Make a daily to-do list and reply to inquiries right away. When there are flaws, admit them and learn from them so you can take deliberate steps to avoid repeating them in the future. Great work implies high precision.
11. Lifelong Education
To develop future employability skills, one must be a lifelong learner. A person with this educational mindset develops into a self-directed learner who can function without predetermined goals or curricula and instead has the mindset to absorb whatever is or would be required.
One of the critical competencies for the future workforce will be the ability to develop personally and professionally and anticipate future skill sets. Possessing an entrepreneurial mindset, using iterative thinking, and perceiving mistakes as teaching opportunities are some other abilities and attitudes that come with a commitment to continual learning, and they are future employability skills.
12. Self-control
The capacity to plan and manage your job responsibilities consistent with little to no supervision and direction is known as self-management. This ability also promotes efficiency by saving time.
Taking the lead and asking for more responsibility at work are two ways to enhance self-management skills.
Being responsible for your actions and work, managing your responsibilities, and participating in voluntary work will further aid in grooming these types of vital employability skills.
13. Mindset for User Experience (UX)
It is predicted that during the next several years, organizations will automate most positions in the customer service sector. Imagine not having somebody to discuss worries and troubles with over the phone or in person. Automated, pre-recorded responses would process every transaction.
The complete customer/user experience would be lost. And because of this, there’d be a significant need for designers, in particular, who had a user experience attitude. To avoid or minimize the necessity of going through the lengthy customer service process, future products and procedures must be created so that the end user is immediately more satisfied with the quality and usability.
14. Design Thought
Design is also one of the modern employability skills of the future. When examining difficulties and finding solutions, design thinking employs a different method. Design thinking differs from conventional, organized problem-solving and analytical methodologies in emphasizing “business soft skills” rather than technical skills.
For instance, design thinking employs ingenuity, systemic reasoning, and instinct in addition to technical or software optimization algorithms to produce creative solutions.
15. Digital Citizenship That Is Responsible
Competent digital literacy is another of those essential employability skills needed to succeed in a world where the lines between the real and the virtual are more blurred. Making responsible use of online resources is considered responsible digital citizenship.
For instance, a responsible online citizen can distinguish between false and accurate information. A responsible netizen would also know how to deal with trolls, harmful entities, fake news, malicious websites, and other online threats.
There will come a day when a person’s digital footprint will likewise play a significant role in recruiting and employability as regulations change due to the internet’s ever-increasing influence.
Conclusion
The next several years will become the most important in determining whether we will still be able to support ourselves in a few decades. The best employability skills for tomorrow will keep us relevant in a highly technological workforce, so we need to start developing them now.
We sincerely hope that our list of employability skills was able to assist you in identifying the specific abilities you need to pick up and the other skills you have to hone. We must constantly improve ourselves and acquire the capabilities that the future workforce will need since automation threatens to take away the human employment we already have.
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