The pandemic had compelled many to re-think their careers. Be it through a job-switch, gaining more transferable skills, or by completely changing career trajectories, the lockdown might have had many of us thinking what more we could do in life.
A survey by LinkedIn and UK-based market researcher Censuswide revealed that as of December 2021, 82% of the young Indian workforce was considering a job change. In the Great Resignation Survey, 2022 conducted by Naman HR, it was revealed that 4 out of every 10 employees wanted to resign from their current organizations post-increment.
Employees are switching jobs – and their career paths – for better pay, good work-life balance, and even better working conditions. With this, organizations are constantly on the lookout for the best talent they can find to close their positions.
Amidst this frenzy, hiring has taken a more skill-based approach to attract the best potential in the job market. For both employers and employees, priorities have shifted from past history and work experience to focusing on transferable skills.
What are Transferable Skills?
We all know CVs and Cover Letters give in-depth information about an individual’s past work experiences, technical skills, and an overview of their career interests.
But what happens in cases where someone wants to switch to an entirely different career path, or similar roles that differ from company to company?
When one does not have adequate technical skills and experience to justify their job application, what basis would an organization use to assess their potential to take on a specific job role?
This is where “transferable skills” come into the picture. Transferable, or ‘Portable’ skills are a result of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics gained through various academic and work experiences. These are the skills one carries from one job to another.
Let’s say you’re assigned a team to take on a new project. You have a tight deadline, and need your team to work on different segments of the project to ensure it is completed at the earliest. You communicate with your team, delegate roles, and continuously coordinate with them till the other party signs off on the final product.
Would the project be just as successful if you hadn’t communicated with your team members, or missed out on following up with your team at every stage?
According to the Essential Skills Tracker 2022, some of the top transferable skills are –
Leadership
When you ‘lead’, influence or guide others to reach a shared goal, you’re using your leadership skills. Organizations are always in the lookout for good leaders. Good leaders make good employees, allowing them to reach their goals and help the organization grow. When switching from one job to the next, the ability to lead determines how well one performs, and lets others perform in the organization.
Teamwork
Teamwork refers to collaborating with people and working toward a shared goal. Effective teamwork requires empathy, active listening, and excellent communication skills. Understanding prior experiences with handling a team allows employers to gauge how well one will work with others in the workplace.
Active Listening
Listening is a highly-valued skill. Naturally, no organization would want someone who zones out in an important client meeting and fails to make a note of their requirements. Listening involves receiving, retaining and processing information or ideas.
Speaking
To be able to communicate ideas and information effectively is an integral part of communication both within and outside the organization. As shown in the example above, you need to speak to your team to get the task done – and ensure they didn’t miss out on your very long email, of course.
Problem Solving
You have a problem at hand – how do you solve it?
Common across all job roles, problem solving is the ability to find a solution to a situation or challenge. In your past job, you may have solved an extremely complex problem at hand, the basis of which served the way you approach various other challenges. After switching a job, you carry your ability to tackle complex situations irrespective of the role you take up.
Creativity
There is always room for creativity, they say. In any setting, one might want to use their imagination and come up with newer and better ideas to approach different situations. Be it any job role or organization, creativity allows scope for innovation and growth.
Positivity
What would you do in a situation where you failed to get an extremely important deal signed? Would you sulk and not take up similar projects, or work on coming up with strategies to overcome these setbacks and achieve your next goal?
Fostering positivity in an organization helps employees remain focused on goal-achievement and strive towards achieving better outcomes.
Transferable Skills also include, but are not limited to, the skills of Initiative, Empathy, Adaptability, Empathy, and Critical Thinking.
Why Hire Based on Transferable Skills?
Needless to say, technical or ‘hard’ skills are important to carry out a certain task, but transferable skills help execute the task more effectively. For example, designing a product would also require the employee to explain the logic behind their design, and come up with quick changes if the client doesn’t fancy their work.
Adopting a skills-based approach would not only help organizations create a diverse talent pool, but also help job seekers smoothly transition into their new workplaces. Having transferable or ‘soft’ skills help an individual in better meeting the needs of a specific task and advancing in their career.
Studies show that transferable skills boost workplace productivity, and lead to better outcomes and profitability. In a study conducted in one of the largest retailers in Latin America, managers participated in a five-day interactive programme to improve their skills of leadership and communication, and results showed that the training boosted leadership and management skills among the store managers.
With the proven benefits of hiring based on transferable skills, both recruiters and job seekers need to make the shift to prioritizing skills that can improve work performance and productivity.
A skill-based approach would require organizations to re-define the competencies and skills required for various job roles. These competencies can then be assessed to choose the best among the talent pool. At PerspectAI, we understand job requirements, map competencies and create test designs. We build fun and interactive game-based assessments to measure various essential skills of candidates such as problem solving, taking initiative, critical thinking, decision making, and the likes that help employees perform effectively and efficiently in organizations.
PerspectAI makes skill-based hiring much easier, fun, and feasible. Join us and transition from your traditional hiring benchmarks to a more skill-based approach.
