Soft Skills Employers Will Seek in 2022

Aside from education, technical skills, and required training, soft skills are an important way to impress your hiring managers. Hiring managers typically seek out candidates with both technical and soft skills. To advance your career to the next level within a company, it is critical to develop soft skills to enhance your technical skills and education. According to the Oxford dictionary, soft skills “are competencies that employees possess associated with activities such as customer handling, communication, problem-solving, and team-working… soft skills sometimes includes loyalty, enthusiasm, punctuality, and a strong work ethics”. Here are examples of soft skills that will help you impress your hiring managers and co-workers.

1. Communication Skills

Communication is important when interacting with co-workers, managers, clients, customers, vendors, and others. Speaking clearly and politely will take you a long way. Equally important is being an active listener, which requires you to listen, understand, respond, reflect, and retain information during a conversation. In fact, many hiring managers consider active listening one of the most important soft skills.

2. Problem Solving Skills

How you creatively and logically tackle obstacles is an indicator to hiring managers of your problem solving skills. Are you a risk taker or risk averse? Generally, most hiring managers are looking for creative and innovative solutions to problems in the workplace. On your resume, include specific examples of how you have solved difficult problems with innovative solutions.

3. Adaptability

Change is one of the most consistent factors of any workplace. COVID is one of the most recent examples. Most working people have had to adapt to working from home. Hiring managers want to see whether you are flexible enough to deal with things as they happen. Highlight different situations, tasks, actions, and the result(s) of you adapting to change during your interview.

4. Time Management

Time management may be a basic skill, but that doesn’t change how important it is. Time management skills allow you to organise your schedule and complete projects in a timely fashion. Make a list of the time management tools, calendars, software, and daily and weekly goals you would like to accomplish. Highlight your experience with the time management tools during interviews to showcase your experience and skill.

5. Positive Attitude

A positive attitude goes a long way, especially if you work in a fast paced, high stress environment. Employers are always looking for individuals who will bring a positive attitude to their office and elevate their work culture. To cultivate this skill, work on being friendly, respectful, patient, and having a smile on your face.

6. Work Ethic

Coming to work on time, being organised, and completing your daily tasks are critical to any company. Hiring managers are looking for someone with a strong work ethic who are punctual, follow directions, and accomplish their tasks.

7. Collaboration

In most work environments, you will be a part of the team and/or have to work with others to accomplish a goal. This makes working with others and being able to give and accept ideas a critical skill. Being able to accomplish goals with different personalities, work styles, and skill sets is important.

8. Leadership

Companies are always looking for someone who demonstrates signs of leadership and willingness to grow beyond their role. Leadership is a combination of all the aforementioned soft skills. Point out leadership roles such as running a project during interviews to emphasise this skill. Oftentimes, leadership skills can be showcased even when you were not the manager or head of a project. Provide instances of how you led by example and how the team improved because of your actions.

Conclusion: 8 Soft Skills Employers Will Seek in 2022

There you have it! These are skills that you should consistently keep in mind and work on developing on a daily basis. Soft skills in the workplace have become increasingly important. Developing these 8 examples of soft skills will take your career to the next level and help impress hiring managers and coworkers.