Soft skills have become the most sought-after assets by recruiters, even above technical skills and work experience. Companies need people who are more agile and adaptable, able to cope with rapid changes in the market.
“Soft skills are one of the five factors with the greatest impact on the success of a company, along with entrepreneurship, competitiveness, investment and innovation”explains Jesús Araújo, CEO of Cegos Spain and Latam.
Among the benefits of soft skills, they promote faster adoption of new work practices; greater talent retention, since they promote mobility at all levels of the company; and improved compliance with deadlines, thanks to more collaborative work processes.
Soft skills also contribute to well-being in the work environment and have a positive effect on the balance between the professional and personal lives of workers. They increase resistance to stress, help employees find personal satisfaction in their work and can be applied to their private life.
These are the seven soft skills that the market will demand the most:
1. Remote collaboration
Organizations are increasingly connected through the network and have adaptable, remote and multicultural teams. In addition, virtual communities and social networks are taking over from vertical organizations.
Collaborate and cooperate at a distance is essential. To achieve this, strong interpersonal skills, skills in the use of collaboration tools, knowledge of several languages and knowing how to distinguish and understand possible cultural differences are required.
2. Digital communication
Being a competent user is essential, but it is not enough. Digital literacy involves three complementary skills:
- Search, access, classify, filter and synthesize relevant information in a critical and systematic way.
- Produce content that provides real added value for others: go beyond simply sharing.
- Produce and publish appropriate multimedia content.
3. Agility and adaptability
The increasingly fragmented nature of professional trajectories leads to the development of a set of knowledge and experiences that will be widely transferable.
The agility and ability of people to lead change will be a key success factor; They will have to work on a high tolerance for uncertainty and new ideas, acquire knowledge in various disciplines and be able to accept continuous change.
4. Creativity and sense of innovation
The creativity It is the ability to propose new ways of interpreting situations. It implies being open to new ideas and experiences (cultural, artistic or professional). A person can develop it as an expert user of the tools that foster this creativity and by seeking environments that favor the creation of new ideas.
5. Entrepreneurial spirit
Freedom of enterprise, both inside and outside organizations, has never been greater. An individual’s ability to turn ideas into actions requires great motivation (enthusiasm is the most powerful driver for action), taking risks and managing projects that seek to achieve concrete objectives.
6. Efficient work organization
The proliferation of unproductive communications, the growing mass of information, the various distractions and the number of projects that are carried out simultaneously force people to increase their productivity in their jobs to achieve their goals. There are three aspects that are critical:
Time is and will continue to be scarce. It is essential to know and apply the best practices in time management, knowing how to choose priorities.
Good management of the work environment, whether in the office or remotely, must guarantee optimal accessibility to be able to deal with any problem effectively.
It is important to take advantage of every opportunity to automate the most routine tasks.
7. Learn to learn
It is recommended that each person reserve 20% of their work time to improve their skills and remain employable, trying to comply with what the labor market demands at all times.
To do this, people must develop a culture of self-learning and design their own strategy within the ecosystem (company, networks, training institutions and communities).
Behavioral skills
Soft skills can be defined as “behavioral skills”, a set of interpersonal, situational and emotional skills that help the company and its human teams deal with the complexity and unpredictability of the world around them.
By 2030, it is estimated that the demand for technological skills will increase by 55%, the requirements for social and emotional skills (leadership, management, etc.) will increase by 24% and the demand for highly cognitive skills (such as creativity or the processing of complex information) will increase by 8%, according to the report The future of the workplace, by the consulting firm McKinsey.
