Employers make money by solving problems for their clients. It, therefore, means that to get the attention of your target employer and land that dream job, you must include in your resume, certain skills relevant to your target industry’s problem-solving processes.
Employability is related to work and the ability to be employed, such as:
* The ability to gain initial employment
* The ability to maintain employment and make ‘transitions’ between jobs and roles within the same organization to meet new job requirements* The ability to obtain new employment if required, i.e. to be independent in the labour market by being willing and able to manage their own employment transitions between and within organisations.
Wikipedia
It is my belief that you are reading this article probably because you are in search of that little extra spice to make your resume stand out from the rest; something to make it very irresistible to your target employers. Well, you are not alone, in fact, every job seeker dreams of having that particular resume that makes their employers’ anxious to call them for a one on one interview.
If you are in this category, you should know that employers place significant attention on finding candidates with the right competencies and skills for their organisation.
In this article, I’ll be exploring:
- What are employability skills, and why they’re essential?
- Top 5 skills that can get you employed easily.
- How to improve them.
There are top 5 skills that will get you employed easily into any career sector of your choosing once you have them written on your cv or resume.
They Are:
- Communication
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Technology
- Leadership
Contents
Table of contents
What can you offer to make employers queue up for you? I bet you’re literally counting your fingers, blinking hard and probably ransacking your brain, but that’s fine.
What Are Employability Skills?
There are specific skills required for individuals to be employable. “a collection of achievements that sets people apart for a job” is referred to as employability. This means that there are specific skills, knowledge and attributes which you must have to gain employment in your desired career path.
With the current unemployment rate and significant traffic of graduates today from universities, there is a heightened focus to determine who is more qualified for the job. These skills are not necessarily dependent on how excellent your university cumulative grade point score is. Despite your university degree’s usefulness, your employers are also searching for other attributes, skills you possess that make you unique from others.
Why are Employability Skills Important?
These collections of skills, attitudes, and knowledge are significant because of their roles in setting straight your records as a job seeker. They tell your employers how qualified you are and why they shouldn’t let you slip through their fingers because of the enormous value you’ll bring to the organisation. Here are a few reasons why employability skills are vital in your quest for employment.
It Facilitates Networking and Connection With Your Coworkers
Every employer’s desire is to employ an individual who will not incur a cost on the organisation in settling lawsuits or paying for damages. This is why they are on the lookout for your personal characteristics and how you interact with others on a personal level. Employability skills will inform them about how well you get along with other employees, teammates and customers and how likely you raise your job performance score.
Makes You a Solution Provider
Being a problem solver in an organisation establishes you as an asset over any other candidate. Employability skills help you identify areas you are proficient in and increase your functionality. It would help you think of new ideas, better ways of doing things to save time and money.
Makes Your Role Clear
Every career and job requires a certain amount of skills. A customer representative’s skill differs significantly from that of a chief editor. This means that you cannot be employed if you fail to possess the organisation’s skills required for a specific role. Definitely, a customer representative cannot have the chief editor’s skills and vice versa; else, there will be confusion in the organisation.
Guide You on Making Responsible Choices
Every job role you choose has specific emotional skills, which guides you to make decisions. A customer representative’s options when facing a rude and arrogant customer will differ from the security personnel’s choice. Hence, having employability skills helps your employers know that you’ll make the right choice when faced with tough decisions.
Top 5 Skills That Get You Employed Easily
As a job seeker, you must realise that times have changed. The world is trying hard to readjust from the recent pandemic that restructured all working procedures and standards. Many companies are tilting towards remote working conditions just to keep the ball in their court rolling.
The world’s happenings have taught these companies enormous lessons in setting up their work environment to be functional even when another global catastrophe should ever repeat. As a potential job seeker, you must possess soft skills to give you leverage from others – those skills that’ll make recruiting managers fight for you literally. Suppose you want to have what it takes for this to happen to you. In that case, you have to look beyond your university degree and your certifications and identify the top 5 skills employers will be on the lookout for in 2021.
Here are the top 5 skills that will get you employed easily in any job market you decide to explore. As you prepare to begin your search for the one genuine job that gives you fulfilment, you need to brush up on these top five (5) skills to get you employed easily.
Starting a new business?
READ: How to Build Staff Loyalty when You are Just Starting
- Communication
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Technology
- Leadership
1. Communication
This is an essential skill required to succeed in the job environment. communication is your ability to share information in a way everyone understands. It involves a clear interpretation of information shared without any form of misunderstanding. Unlike how abstract poetry and paintings are open to all variations, communication seeks to leverage clarity without any form of ambiguity.
Communication skills are required during the conversation with teammates, clients, shareholders and even your digital audience. Your words, either spoken or written, should appeal and connect to your clients at an emotional level to bring excellent results to your organisation. Communication skills also reach towards your ability to communicate non-verbally, such as the use of body language.
How Can You Improve Your Communication Skills?
Overcommunication can be very overwhelming because, in the long run, you’ll lose your listeners along the way. Keep your messages short, clear and straightforward to avoid overcommunication.
Divert the attention from yourself and place it on your audience. Become a better listener by engaging your audience more and giving them your maximum attention.
Organise your thoughts before you write; this will give your written document direction. Which will help the ideas to flow into each other and ensure that the message has been passed.
Writing often trains you on how to research and use information well. It helps you to build a writing culture that grows over time to yield results. A practical approach to doing this is by journaling, using social media and blogging.
2. Teamwork and Collaboration
Your ability to work with others in carrying out organisational assignments in the work environment is vital for your success. As a potential employee, you must work with others either in a group or team. Although some organisations require that you work remotely from home, it does not mean you should always be the hero who takes on all the work and completes it solo. You should be able to collaborate with others to carry out tasks. For example, you might need to collaborate with other departments in the organisation to plan an event or, better yet, complete an assignment. So your ability to stay coordinated and flow well with others while completing these tasks is known as teamwork and is a vital skill in many organisations.
How Can You Improve Your Teamwork and Collaboration?
Effective communication is critical. Just as established earlier, communication is integral in every business setting, departments and offices. You need to know how to communicate well with all your teammates and colleagues. If possible, create a personal relationship with everyone and learn how to relate to everyone in a friendly manner.
Setting ground rules may sound a bit too much, but it is necessary if you want to achieve your goals. People are of different orientation and mindset; it’s difficult to convince everyone to bring maximum input until there are ground rules with understood consequences.
3. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
How quickly do you want to land that dream job? One of the best things you can do for yourself at this time is to hone your critical thinking skills. No one will hire a liability that is excellent at scratching their heads in the face of business-threatening situations. Employers are constantly looking for recruits whose brains are functional—people who can take the initiative to think of solutions quickly for the never-ending problems organisation.
How Can You Improve Your Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills?
Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities come from continuous learning. Your brain is constantly being developed by the experiences you have learned and applied, the number of books you’ve read or how great you are at research. To think critically and provide accurate solutions to problems, you should be able to learn continuously.
4. Technology
Like it or not, digital technology is topping the charts in the business world. Irrespective of your business role, you need to be conversant with the trending media technologies. Because new and better social apps are developed daily. You need to gain mastery over these technologies to give your application an edge over others. The world is changing, and soon, people will use virtual offices instead. To be able to function correctly, you need to develop your technical skills.
5. Leadership
Leadership skills are a necessity in many organisations. Your recruiters need to know if they can trust you with organisational assignments and responsibilities and expect excellent results. Leadership skills require all the four skills listed above, bringing out the best output. You must be willing to take responsibility, lead your team, make enormous contributions during team meetings, and lead by example.
CURIOUS? LEARN TO MONETIZE YOUR SKILLS
Final Thoughts
You should know that the most critical skill you need to excel is your ability to learn. Besides the top 5 skills that get you employed easily, more skills might get you selected. But this article focuses on the most essential skills you’ll need to apply for any role. Ensure that there should be more room to expand your knowledge and be conversant with trends.
And when you are finally employed, the biggest illusion is thinking that your “work” will talk for you in that company when no one knows what you are doing or have done. “Works” do not talk; only humans talk. Do great things, and let people talk for you because you have spoken with people. Until people, not “works”, can speak in your absence, recommending you for opportunities, that elevation may not come.
