For many years now, the recruitment industry has been dominated by a focus on candidates who can easily demonstrate their hard skills to recruiters, e.g. having a specific educational background, or the ability to use a specific piece of software.
However, recruitment is changing…
One emerging theme we’ve noticed over the past few years is recruiters’ demand for soft skills is on the rise, and while hard skills are still important, HR personnel are now putting more importance on more transferable skill sets than hiring based on hard skills alone.
At Clevry we believe that soft skills are essential when it comes to job performance. The highly transferable nature of soft skills means that candidates can more easily adapt to the changing world of work and provide more tangible benefits to the organisations they work for.
So what exactly are these soft skills that employers are seeking? We’ve rounded up a few of the most vital ones for this year below…
Key soft skills for 2022
Adaptability
Adaptability – if the last few years are anything to go by, adaptability, or flexibility to change will be one of the key strengths needed to succeed in a modern day working role.
Communication
Having good communication skills plays an essential role in being successful at work. Being able to communicate effectively, understand information accurately and quickly, and relay this to others in a way they can understand is one of the most vital soft skills to have. In contrast, poor communication soft skills will lead to frequent misunderstandings and frustration.
Emotional Intelligence
Often described as the “ability to recognise, understand, manage, and reason with emotions.” Emotional Intelligence plays a key role in building high-performing teams and is often cited as playing a key role in being seen as a good leader. This soft skill will continue to grow in demand as companies start to focus more on soft skills over hard skills alone.
Growth Mindset
Another highly sought after soft skill. Employees with a growth mindset will seek to better themselves and will be constantly developing their skills. People with a growth mindset actively seek out challenges and tend to be more resilient to setbacks as they see them as opportunities for learning and growth, rather than allowing it to stop them completely.
Storytelling
A key soft skill that’s useful in a large number of different roles. At Clevry we’ve noticed a marked increase in clients asking to assess their candidates for their ability to write creatively and tell effective stories. A key soft skill for marketing, PR, education and communications professionals.
Creativity
A highly valuable workplace soft skill, creativity is extremely useful for developing new ideas, finding solutions to complex problems and helping to increase efficiencies across a range of areas.
While most people tend to think of creativity as something you are born with (either you have it or you don’t), you may find it surprising to know that creativity, like many other skills, can be taught and developed over time.
Want to find out your soft skills strengths and know how to improve them? Visit our Joy at Work platform, take a quick picture quiz and then sign up to find out your strengths at work with our free personality questionnaire!
