Soft Skills – A Guide for Employers
To begin with, it's worth paying attention to the content of labor market news, or even the general trends of global business development. A recurring common feature in these reports is that companies are struggling not only to find the right number of employees, but also the right quality of workers. Almost every industry faces talent shortages and limited availability of human resources needed for growth. The severity of the situation becomes particularly dramatic in the technology sector, where competition between companies and human resource demand intensifies.
Why Has This Happened?
In the era of digitalization and technological advancement, virtually every company has become at least partially a technology company, as they base a significant portion of their operations on digital tools and solutions. Efforts to introduce and implement new technologies have accelerated and become fundamental competitiveness factors in the modern economy.
According to ManpowerGroup's Stack It Up report, demand for technical skills continues to grow. Technology-related jobs constitute more than half of the twenty most sought-after occupations – including data analysts, artificial intelligence and machine learning experts, 5G and Big Data specialists, digital marketing and strategic advisors, digital transformation professionals, application and software developers, and network and information security analysts.
While finding these technical specialists is challenging in itself, attracting talent with the right soft skills is equally important and complex.
Technical Knowledge Alone Is Not Enough
As technology evolves – particularly under the influence of the 5G revolution and the spread of mobile and flexible work – there is growing demand for cybersecurity and cloud-based engineering solutions, which is also reshaping the profile of the most sought-after talents of the future.
The demand for technical expertise is not limited to a single sector: it spans from financial and business services through healthcare, retail, e-commerce, public sector, logistics, to industrial production. The situation is further complicated by the fact that successful completion of technical tasks increasingly requires well-developed human, so-called soft skills.
Among the most sought-after skills in today's labor market are:
- analytical thinking and innovation willingness
- active learning ability
- complex problem-solving
- creativity
- leadership qualities and social influence
- stress tolerance and flexibility
- emotional intelligence
- persuasive and negotiation skills
Many current market players – who are working on business transformation – are unable to successfully implement their digital transformation strategies because they lack the appropriately skilled workforce.
What Can Companies Do?
BUILD – BUY – BORROW – BRIDGE: these are the key concepts that help organizations manage increasingly diverse skill needs and bridge human resource obstacles.
BUILD
Invest in employee training and development to build the necessary technological knowledge base in-house.
BUY
Explore the external labor market, attract external talent when necessary competencies cannot be developed internally in a short time.
BORROW
Engage external technical specialists (such as freelancers, consultants, temporary project workers) who specifically complement your internal team's knowledge.
BRIDGE
Support internal colleagues in taking on new technological roles and developing their technical and human skills – either within or outside the company.
