The 12 soft skills key for employment in 2021

Soft skills have gained more importance in the world of employment is these last years. In that sense, recruitment processes are ever more oriented to the search of professionals with skills beyond those strictly technical. According to the report “The future of the workplace” by McKinsey foresees that by 2030 the demand of social and emotional skills will increase 24%.

In this same line, 57% of directors according to a study published by Linkedin considers that soft skills are more useful than hard skills.

Key soft skills in 2021

In a world where technology is replacing many repetitive tasks, professionals are discovering that their capacity to succeed and thrive will depend on their human skills: creativity, persuasion, leadership or communication for example. The pandemic has changed relationships and the skills searched by companies when recruiting new employees.

Which are the most demanded soft skills?

• A basic skill is the capacity of “learning to learn” and the speed of such learning.
• Adaptability because change has turned into one of the most significant features and a constant in the actual world. Flexibility is indispensable for companies to continuously adapt to a world which is in constant change.
• The capacity to persuade to boost new projects.
• Communication skills, essential in employment environments where work dynamics will be ever more flexible and online.
• Leadership and capacity to manage teams in a context of uncertainty where teams work online.
• Management of time, essential while companies continue to use telework.
• Empathy. People being able to empathize expressing a genuine interest and true concern for others.
• The capacity to design original and useful solutions is one the most valuable skills in payrolls.
• Analytic thinking. Different studies consider this skill as the first skill demanded in 2025. It provides new ideas and helps us being more inquiring and decisive.
• Resilience: The capacity to face adversity and crisis scenarios and even being reinforced by them.
• Commitment: Organizations these days search more than ever employees committed to the mission, vision and specially to the objective of the company.
• The capacity to serve others. Companies need leaders who think in the common good; a more human leadership through the service to others. The pandemic has humanized companies.

How can we acquire and work these skills? We all have them to a greater or lesser extent and have to continue developing them. The good news is that they can be “learned”. CEU Universities have programs to develop them.