Human Skills Are Your Workforce Superpower

Human skills increase hybrid work’s effectiveness

By Mike Howells, Pearson

The Rolling Stones put it best: “Time waits for no one and it won’t wait for me.”

The World Economic Forum projects that more than 1 billion people will need reskilling by 2030 to keep up with the changing demands of the economy and society. Companies are struggling to keep pace with the change in skills demand today - assessing the skills gaps in their workforces and strategizing how to close those gaps to align with business goals and serve employee needs.

At the same time, they know they also need to anticipate and plan for future skills needs, factoring in how technological changes will impact their workforce and business strategy. And time marches on.

Identifying the Skills Needed to Thrive

Pearson analyzed over 20 million job listings and labor market and census data in four major economies. The aim was to identify employers’ most sought-after skills and understand how technological change is driving the evolution of job requirements. The findings illuminate broader talent management trends and challenges facing organizations and the workforce.

First, the obvious point: Yes, technology skills are table stakes. Anyone in the workforce right now knows they will need to refresh their technical skills throughout their careers to keep pace with technological advancements and changes to the systems they use daily.

However, the more interesting, and important, story Pearson’s Skills Outlook on Power Skills tells is about the value of people.

That is because today’s top five power skills – the most in-demand skills across all jobs and industriesare all human skills:

● Communication.

● Customer service.

● Leadership.

● Attention to detail.

● Collaboration.

Human Skills Are Essential Across Roles and Industries

Human skills are ranked highest in demand and are predicted to remain at the top of employers’ lists from now through at least 2026. Tech skills will always be important, but the value of non-technical skills, such as cultural and social intelligence and the ability to learn, will continue to grow. These human skills transfer to nearly any role and have true longevity. A robust foundation of human skills serves individuals and organizations now and in the future.

Employers and employees alike take human skills for granted. Companies expect human skills without offering ways to enhance them. Job candidates sometimes consider these skills “built-in,” with no potential for improvement or refining. And likely, no one in the equation has attributed significant ROI to these skills. But we can all see the results when we fail to invest in them sufficiently.

An organization’s success depends on the success of its individual contributors. If you address those individuals’ challenges — productivity, motivation, engagement and any skills gaps — then both the employees and organization flourish.

Investment in Upskilling Around Human Skills

In physical offices, human skills exist invisibly. Talking with colleagues and customers, asking follow-up questions and brainstorming solutions to problems — these abilities look and feel “natural” to us when we share a physical space. The evolution of hybrid work from a lesser-used model to the prevailing work dynamic among remote-capable employees in the U.S. has accentuated the need to include human skills in an organization’s learning and development initiatives.

Human skills increase hybrid work’s effectiveness. While valuable in physical environments, well-honed communication, collaboration and leadership skills are vital to the success of a geographically diverse team. Companies that previously did not value or invest adequately in human skills may only now see the consequences as some employees struggle in a hybrid environment. Innovative start-ups are already focusing on this area.

The Skills Outlook data shows that businesses must invest in communication, collaboration, problem-solving and learning as core to their future success.

Automation Can’t Replace Human Skills

A few years ago, most conversations about automation centered on the notion that machines and algorithms would take over all kinds of tasks, supplanting human workers and creating an employment crisis.

Instead, automation has acted as a clarifying force, illustrating where the most value-adding human skills critical thinking, leadership, personal learning and mastery — are most needed in the workplace. Automating repetitive and mundane jobs — tasks machines do quickly and effectively — has highlighted automation’s shortcomings and identified which responsibilities require a human touch. Consequently, the skills needed to perform those tasks effectively have become increasingly valuable.

Pearson’s data shows that talented, skilled people bring unique value to a technology-enabled and augmented world.

Better Skills Data Empowers Individuals and Drives Business Outcomes

The prominence of human skills as the most in-demand capabilities for an organization both now and in the foreseeable future indicates an urgent need to prioritize upskilling the workforce in communication, customer service, leadership, attention to detail and collaboration. Precise, dynamic skills data enables companies to understand where they need to invest in learning and development to reshape their workforce proactively.

With insight into the skills they have today and the skills they need tomorrow to achieve their business objectives, organizations can effectively design a path between those two points while empowering and motivating individual employees. Talent management and investment need to be at the top of any CEO’s priority list.

Robust skills data also helps shape and expand individual potential. Improving transparency and insights around personalized skills data equips employees with a deep understanding of the skills they have today, the skills they could have tomorrow and the impact of those skills on their career goals. This insight empowers employees to participate in the skills economy, make decisions about their future and be the most productive versions of themselves.

A renewed focus on cultivating human skills will be your organization’s superpower in a time of shifting needs, tightened budgets and economic uncertainty. Investing in and nurturing communication, leadership, problem-solving and other nontechnical, soft skills will position your organization to thrive in hybrid remote work environments and complement the evolving role of automation in the modern workforce.

But building these skills requires insight into your workforce’s strengths and weaknesses. Business needs continue to accelerate and evolve, and the time is now to invest in a strategic workforce planning model that accounts for human skills.

Mike Howells is President of Workforce Skills at Pearson. Mike leads Pearson’s Workforce Skills agenda, with a focus on data-driven upskilling and reskilling that supports career progression, drives growth for employers, and helps people unlock their potential. He has more than 20 years of international business and global affairs experience, having held senior leadership positions in the British diplomatic network and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as well as working in international development, human rights law, the UK tech sector, and at HSBC.